Chandrayaan - Mission Moon

NASA radar aboard Chandrayaan-1 finds ice on moon's north pole

2010-03-02T05:57:00.001-08:00

A NASA radar aboard India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has detected craters filled with thick deposits of ice near the moon's north pole, the US space agency said on Tuesday.
NASA's Mini-Sar experiment found more than 40 small craters, ranging in size from one to nine miles, containing water ice.
"Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it's estimated there could be at least 600 million metric tons of water ice," the space agency said in a statement.
The radar's findings "show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought," said Paul Spudis, lead investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.
The Mini-SAR has spent the last year mapping the moon's permanently-shadowed polar craters that are not visible from Earth, using the polarization properties of reflected radio waves.
"After analysing the data, our science team determined a strong indication of water ice, a finding which will give future missions a new target to further explore and exploit," Jason Crusan of NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington said.
Chandrayaan-1 was India's contribution to the armada of unmanned spacecraft to have been launched to the Moon in recent years.

'India's manned moon mission by 2020'

2008-12-07T00:41:00.001-08:00

India would be able to send a manned mission to the moon by 2020,

while the second unmanned spacecraft would be ready by 2012, said
a top space
scientist who was involved in the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1.

"If everything goes as per the plan, we will be ready to send a man to moon by 2020," said Jitendranath Goswami, director of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.

PRL is the laboratory that helped build a payload called the high energy X-ray spectrometer that will look for water ice in the polar regions of the moon. Goswami, who hails from Assam, was Saturday interacting with students, journalists, and academics, in Guwahati.

"Maybe in 50 years from now, there will be an alternate space to live in Mars," the space scientist said. Goswami said he felt proud to be part of the historic moon mission and spelt out other programmes in the pipeline.

"As a scientist I have miles to go," Goswami was modest in his reply to a question as to how he felt being part of Chandrayaan-1. "But we're not in any great hurry. We're hoping to get data (from Chandrayaan-1) for a long time."

He stressed on the need to help children get attracted towards science and space technology by urging parents to do something inspirational. "Parents and guardians can inspire their children to achieve something in life," Goswami said.

Towards a manned space flight after the successful moon mission

2008-11-19T10:45:00.001-08:00

India’s successful maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has given a big boost to the ambitious plan of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to undertake a manned flight by 2015.

The latest Annual Report of the Indian Space Department says that India’s manned flight programme envisages the development of a fully autonomous orbital vehicle capable of carrying the crew members.

The Indian manned capsule which is expected to weigh up to 4 tonnes is being planned to be launched by means of the heavy lift-off GSLV (MK-III) vehicle now.

It is being envisaged that an advanced astronaut training facility will be set up by ISRO in collaboration with the Bangalore-based Institute of Aviation Medicine (IAM) for the training of astronauts. The training centre will cover 100 acres will be set up on the outskirts of Bangalore.

The follwing main facilities would form the part of this training centre are a radiation simulation chamber to help astronauts handle radiation from the sun; a centrifuge to enable manoeuvers in space, a zero gravity simulator as well as hardware designed to train astronauts fly their spaceship.

The final approval of this Rs 12, 0000-million manned flight programme is awaited from the Union Government.

A third launch pad will be developed to have the facilities such as crew escape module. Meanwhile, it has been planned that two Indians will fly onboard a Russian spaceship to the International Space Station (ISS) before the indian manned mission. For this, India and Russia have already set up a joint working team to study the finer details of training and flying Indian astronauts.

It is envisaged that the selected astronaut candidates will be trained in the Russian Star City and this exercise will help India gain an insight into the intricacies of astronaut training.

ISRO believes that India’s manned space flight is a crucial step towards the future plans to ISRO to send a man to moon.

Video of the moon from Chandrayaan

2008-11-18T05:09:00.001-08:00

What you see here is the first video of the moon, and was taken by the terrain mapping camera of Chandrayaan. The short video was shot as the spacecraft flew over the area near the moon's south polar region.

ISRO officials are gung-ho about the terrain mapping camera, built by the agency's Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad, which they say has been beaming back amazing pictures of moon's surface from its orbit 100 km above the lunar surface

On November 14, the Moon Impact Probe had sent back photographs of the moon's surface even as it detached from the Chandrayaan and hurtled towards the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-1 gets back to work

2008-11-15T17:41:00.001-08:00

A day after landing India’s first probe instrument on the surface of the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was on Saturday getting ready to activate eight other scientific instruments on board the country’s first unmanned lunar spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1 that is now orbiting the moon and will do so for the next two years.

The box-shaped 35-kg moon impact probe (MIP), with the colours of the Indian flag painted on its four sides, touched down on the lunar surface at 8.31 p.m. Friday. It has sent high quality images of the moon taken while descending the 100 km to its destination after detaching from Chandrayaan-1.

The primary objective of landing the MIP was to demonstrate the technologies required for landing a probe at a designated location. Through this probe, it is also intended to qualify some of the technologies related to future soft landing missions. MIP has been developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, a unit of ISRO.

“We are analysing the images and other data sent by MIP. We are also getting ready to switch on and test the remaining eight payloads (scientific instruments) of the spacecraft in the coming few days,” an ISRO spokesperson said on Saturday. “We have not yet decided the dates and timing to carry out this exercise but it will be pretty soon,” the spokesperson said.

The MIP is the third of the eleven payloads that has begun functioning. Earlier the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) were switched on while Chandrayaan-1 was on its way to the moon, around 384,000 km from Earth. The payloads on Chandrayaan-1 include five entirely designed and developed in India, three instruments from European Space Agency (one developed jointly with India and another with Indian contribution), one from Bulgaria and two from the US.

The Indian payloads include a terrain mapping camera (TMC) to map the lunar topography, capturing black and white 3-D images. It can also photograph a 20 km-wide strip of the lunar surface from as close as five metres.
Chandrayaan-1 will use high resolution remote sensing in the visible, near infrared, microwave and X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to map the moon. It will enable preparation of a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and help map it chemically.

Such high resolution imaging would help in better understanding the process of lunar evolution. Used with data from lunar laser ranging instrument (LLRI), it can help in better understanding of its gravitational field as well.
The camera has been built by Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad.
The Hyperspectral Imager (HySI), another camera built by SAC, is designed to obtain data for mapping minerals on the lunar surface as well as for understanding the mineralogical composition its interior.

The LLRI will provide data for determining the accurate altitude of Chandrayaan-1 above the lunar surface. Data from LLRI will also enable understanding internal structure of the moon and the way large surface features of the moon have changed with time. It has been built by the ISRO Lab for Electro Optic Systems (LEOS), Bangalore.

Chandrayaan-1 will use a High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX) to carry out the first spectral studies of ‘hard’ X-ray energies using good energy resolution detectors. HEX is designed to help explore the possibility of identifying polar regions covered by thick water-ice deposits as well as in identifying regions of high uranium and thorium concentrations. HEX is built jointly by the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) of Ahmedabad and ISRO.

The foreign payloads include C1XS of European Space Agency for high quality x-ray spectroscopic mapping of the moon, Near Infra Red spectrometer (SIR-2) of Germany and ESA, Sub keV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA) from ESA in collaboration with ISRO, Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR) and Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) from the United States and RADOM of Bulgaria.

India emerging as major space power

2008-11-15T10:13:00.001-08:00

India has successfully placed its flag on the lunar, becoming the fourth nation to have done so.

The Indian Space Research Organisation, which was formed merely 36 years ago, is now catching up with its American, French, and Russian counterparts. ISRO really has end-to-end capabilities in space.

Few know that it already has several world records to its credit and in times to come will be able to give other nations a run for their money in the commercial operations as well.

India's maiden moon mission has been a blazing success.

First images of the pristine lunar surface taken by the Indian impact probe as it dashed to the lunar surface at over 6000 kilometers per hour, or at about ten times the speed of Jumbo Jet are stunning. It's not easy to take photos on a dashing suicide mission.

The Chandrayaan Mission also has many firsts to its credit.

This satellite carries the largest suite of scientific instruments ever to be carried to the moon, 14 in all.

At Rs 386 crores, it is the cheapest moon mission of the 21st century. It is an Indian mission with 14 countries as international partners.

No country till date has been able to achieve successfully both an orbiter and a lander on its maiden mission.

Indian scientists have reasons to rejoice, and applauding them is also the world community.
"This indeed is a world record, no other country has carried so many instruments to the moon in a single satellite, all top of the line," said Dr Alok Chatterjee, project engineer, NASA.

The Indian space agency also has other world records to its credit for its rocketry and satellites.

By launching 10 satellites in a single shot, ISRO created a world record in April 2008. India today has the largest constellation of civilian remote sensing satellites in the world, nine in all.

With 11 communication and weather satellites India's fleet in space is the largest in the Asia Pacific region.

India is the first country to be successful in its maiden moon venture and the first to wishfully land a probe on the lunar pole.

By effectively delivering the Chandrayaan satellite with just no time or cost over runs, ISRO really is a shining example of what India can do.

India is indeed emerging as major power house for space exploration and with this string of success behind it ISRO is certainly ready to conquer the next big unknown frontier and make that giant leap to Mars and beyond.

Indian tricolour on destination moon

2008-11-14T10:00:00.001-08:00

India’s maiden moon probe crashed on to the lunar surface at 8.31 p.m. Friday, sending a wealth of data to its mother spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 during the 25 minutes of its useful life. India became the fourth country to send a probe to the moon.The moon impact probe (MIP), which has the Indian tricolour painted on its four sides, will remain for all time to come on the Shackleton Crater region of the lunar south pole. It will never corrode due to the lack of atmosphere on the moon.

“We have given the moon to India,” a beaming and excited chief of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G. Madhavan Nair said minutes after the MIP landed. “The moon has been very favourable to us all through. We have travelled all the way to the moon,” Nair told a crowded press conference at an ISRO base here as his fellow space scientists applauded.

The MIP has already sent “beautiful images with high resolution of the moon and their analysis will now begin”, Nair said.

The around 35-kg MIP with three instruments took the images as it drifted towards the lunar surface detaching from India’s first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 at 8.06 p.m.

The crash landing of the 375 mm x 375 mm x 470 mm MIP, a honeycomb structure carrying a radar altimeter, a video imaging system and a mass spectrometer, raised a cloud of dust that will be analysed by the scientists, yielding a host of data about the composition of the moon.

But well before that, the video imaging system and the mass spectrometer had obtained data that will enable the scientists to analyse if the moon has water, if it has anything that can be used as fuel for nuclear fusion, hopefully even the age of the moon.

Scientists at ISRO waited impatiently for the first batch of data sent by the MIP to Chandrayaan-1, as the spacecraft went behind the moon for an hour after the landing, while orbiting the Earth’s natural satellite from 100 km above.

The landing of the MIP comes 50 years after the first man-made object landed on the lunar surface. The other countries that landed probes on the moon are the former USSR, the US and China.

Chandrayaan-II will be launched in 2012, says Nair

2008-11-13T11:36:00.001-08:00

ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair got a royal welcome at the Sathyabhama Deemed University, which is hosting an international conference in space technology. Posters dotting the campus bore pictures of a victorious looking Dr Nair with the slogan, "He is a great hero, India and abroad." A sign, perhaps, of how India's lunar mission Chandrayaan has captured the imagination of the youth and upped Isro's brand value. Dr Nair, instead, focuses on the relevance of Isro's future missions, its challenges and the management lessons that India Inc could glean from the state-run space agency. ET caught up with Dr Nair a day before the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) is ejected from the Chandrayaan satellite, following which the Indian flag will crash land on the moon, literally! Excerpts:

Can Chandrayaan be termed a complete success when the MIP lands?

No, it will still amount to 95% success since we have to map the moon’s surface for the next year and a half. Mineral mapping and surface feature mapping will be paramount. We can gauge 100% success only after that. The MIP has been scheduled for Friday evening, but we haven't slotted a time yet.

How are the Chandrayaan-II, solar and Mars missions progressing?

Chandrayaan-II will be launched in 2012. We will have a lander (a space vehicle that is designed to land) on it and will drop a small robot on the moon. The robot will pick up samples and analyse and send the data back. For the solar mission, a satellite called Adithya will study solar emissions and its influence. The design has been completed and the launch will happen within two years. We are also going ahead with the study on the Mars mission.

What’s the need of a Rs 12,000-crore human space flight?

We cannot be lagging behind in our capability to access space. China, the US and Japan are going ahead with huge plans for space exploration. There are some processes involved and we will get the government’s approval consequently. The manned mission is slated for 2015.

Chandrayaan-I reaches its final resting orbit

2008-11-12T09:56:00.001-08:00

India's unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 on Wednesday successfully entered the operational lunar orbit after ISRO scientists carried out final orbit reduction manoeuvre, lasting one minute.

The craft is now at a circular orbit of 102 km above the moon's surface, ISRO spokesperson S Satish said.

It is expected to be trimmed to 100 km — the final circular orbit of Chandrayaan-1 — tomorrow, he said.

On November 9, India became the fifth member of the global moon club with Chandrayaan-1 entering the lunar orbit at 5.04 pm (IST). The other four members are the US, Russia (former Soviet Union), Japan, China and members of European Space Agency (ESA).

According to Isro officials, Chandrayaan's liquid engine was fired for 817 seconds when the spacecraft passed at a distance of about 500 km from the moon to reduce its velocity to enable the lunar gravity to capture it around the moon. Chandrayaan's speed was reduced to 366 metres per second when it flew into the moon's orbit.

Experts said it was a significant feat because India's moonshot was successful in the very first attempt — something that even major space powers like the US and Russia could not achieve. The man who launched the Indian moon mission, Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, had said, "It's undoubtedly a great moment for India because nearly 50% of the moon missions of other countries have not been successful."

Chandrayaan-1, the two-year Rs 386 crore Indian moon mission launched from Sriharikota on October 22, will draw a three-dimensional map of the moon, carrying out its chemical mapping and hunting for water or ice.

Kasturirangan said the lunar orbit insertion (LOI) was a nail-biting moment because two objects — the moon and Chandrayaan — moving at a high speed had to have a successful rendezvous. At a certain point, the gravity of moon and that of earth cancel each other out, making LOI very challenging.

Chandrayaan 1 within 500 km of the moon

2008-11-04T09:01:00.001-08:00

Chandrayaan 1 - India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft, moved closer to the moon today, when it broke free from it elliptical orbit around the earth, speeding into deep space towards the moon. This was disclosed by a top space agency official.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) director S. Satish told IANS yesterday, "The liquid apogee motor (LAM) on board will be fired around 5.00 a.m. Tuesday for about five minutes to make the transition and position the spacecraft at about 500 km from the moon's surface and over 3,84,000 km away from the earth."

These complex maneuvers were carried out from the spacecraft's control room at ISRO's telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) in coordination with the deep space network (DSN) at Byalalu, which is about 40 km from Bangalore.

"Additional velocity will be given to the spacecraft to enter the lunar orbit Saturday (Nov 8) for a rendezvous with the moon. With calibrated firing of its LAMs, it will be inserted into its designated orbit, which will be about 100 km from the lunar surface.

In the present orbit, Chandrayaan has taken six days to go round the earth once. The spacecraft performance is being monitored closely and its health parameters are normal," said Mr. Satish.

As you may all be aware, Chandrayaan-1 has been orbiting the earth in an elliptical orbit at 2,67,000 km apogee (farthest point from earth) and 465 km perigee (nearest point to earth) since 29 October.

It was launched on 22 October on board the 316-tonne PSLV-C11 from Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota spaceport off the Andhra Pradesh coast, 80 km north of Chennai. We will keep you posted for more news about the Chandrayaan, so keep watching this space.

Chandrayaan-1 doing well, sending back images

2008-11-03T18:39:00.001-08:00

an initial elliptical orbit around the Earth by PSLV-C11 on October 22, 2008. This was followed by four orbit raising manoeuvres, which together raised Chandrayaan-1's orbit to a much higher altitude. The spacecraft is now circling the Earth in an orbit whose apogee (farthest point to Earth) lies at 267,000 km (Two lakh sixty seven thousand km) and perigee (nearest point to Earth) at 465 km. In this orbit, Chandrayaan-1 takes about six days to go round the Earth once. The spacecraft performance is being continuously monitored and is normal.

Once in GTO, Chandrayaan's on-board motor will be fired to increase its orbit around the earth. The orbit will be raised five times till it reaches 1,019 km perigee and 386,194 km apogee from the Earth on 8 November.

This orbit will take the spacecraft to the vicinity of the moon. The spacecraft will rotate for about five-and-a-half days before firing the engine to slow its velocity for moon's gravity to capture it. As the spacecraft approaches the moon, its speed will be reduced to enable the gravity of the moon to capture it into an elliptical orbit. A series of engine burns will then lower its orbit to its intended 100 km circular polar orbit. Following this, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will be ejected from Chandrayaan-1 and all the scientific instruments/payloads are commissioned.

Chandrayaan-1 completed four orbits around the Earth, on 23 October: "The health of the spacecraft is normal and (it is) doing fine. Spinning in elliptical orbit once in every 6 hours and 30 minutes, it has completed four orbits and is in the fifth orbit."

The successful launch of India's maiden unmanned mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-I could throw new light on the formation of Earth's natural satellite. This is one of the main reasons why all the scientists in the country are excited about the launch.

A popular theory about the moon's formation is that a collision between Mars and Earth threw up a large amount of debris which later became the moon.

"Now with the unmanned mission to the moon, scientists will be able to test this theory by mapping the moon," said Dipankar Bhattacharya, astronomer at the Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Pune.

Orbiting mission

Explaining how this moon mission is different from earlier ones, Bhattacharya said, "The earlier missions were landing missions. The problem with the landing mission is one can investigate only a specific area. But this is an orbiting mission where the entire topography of the moon will be mapped for two years."

Chandrayaan-I, with 11 payloads, one of the most heavily loaded lunar missions, is unique as it will try to map high resolution 3-D topography of the moon's surface, get mineral composition of the same, investigate the presence or absence of water and the chemical composition of the Earth's satellite.

Chandrayaan-I would establish India's credentials as a leader in space technology, including indigenous development of powerful launch vehicles and spacecraft.

With the successful launch of Chandrayaan-I, India now has joined an exclusive club of nations including the US, former Soviet Union, European Space Agency, China and Japan to have sent missions to the moon.

The spacecraft was put into orbit exactly 18.2 minutes after its launch at 6.22 am from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota. At Rs 386 crore, the Indian mission is considered to be the cheapest in the world, which will help generate the first-ever comprehensive maps of the earth's only natural satellite.

Chandrayaan may explain origins of Moon: British scientist

2008-10-23T05:56:00.001-07:00

A British scientist who helped design a camera on board India’s Chandrayaan-1 says he hopes images from it will help answer two tantalising questions about the Moon.

â€œWhere did the Moon come from? And could it ever sustain human life?â€ Maneul Grande of Aberystwyth Universtiy told the Times newspaper.

â€œAfter the Apollo landings, people thought they knew a fair bit about the Moon - they’d seen people walking around up there,â€ said Grande, who helped to design the European Space Agency’s camera that will take X-ray images of the Moon’s surface.

â€œBut the more they looked at the results in detail, people realised the things we don’t understand - like where it came from, or the possible existence of water.â€

Unlike US Apollo expeditions that have explored the same area - on the near side and on its equator - to make it easier to return to Earth, the Grande camera will take images of the entire Moon, the Times said.

It will analyse its glow to detect the presence of six key elements - iron, titanium, calcium, magnesium, silicon and aluminium.

The paper said Grande hopes that the results will help explain whether the Moon is an alien body that collided with the Earth, or is part of the Earth that was broken off after a collision with another body.

â€œThe findings might soon help to support human life on the Moon - for example, at a manned base that Nasa is planning to build,â€ the Times reported.

Grande said he expected â€œmore and more manned bases on the Moon in the next 20-30 yearsâ€.

'India to launch manned moon mission by 2015'

2008-10-23T05:55:00.001-07:00

Soon after India became the sixth nation in the world who sent spacecrafts to the moon, with the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) revealed that India would launch its proposed manned mission to the moon by 2015. ISRO said that it would gear up for the complex and challenging task of the manned mission.

U.s., former Soviet Union, European Space Agency, China and Japan have sent spacecrafts to the moon before India.

G Madhavan Nair, ISRO Chairman said, "Now we have a little bit of breathing time (after today's launch), we are looking how we can design a capsule, which can carry two astronauts onboard a GSLV rocket."

"This is a very complex and challenging task, first of all to conceive a module, which can predict the condition of human life in space. It is a big challenge in terms of technology and realization," he added.

He further pointed out that selecting the astronauts and training them for the space flight and improving the reliability of the launching system are also complex issues. "Considering all these, we have prepared a project report and this had been cleared by the Space Commission and is awaiting the government approval. Based on this, we will have the first man mission from Indian soil before 2015," Nair mentioned.

"ISRO would try to handle the proposed mission without any help from countries that had prior experience in manned missions. It will be completely driven by us. However, if there is any scope for meaningful collaboration, we will consider it," he said.

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's orbit raised

2008-10-23T05:54:00.001-07:00

The first orbit-raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was performed at 09:00 hrs Indian Standard Time (IST) on Thursday morning (October 23) when the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about eighteen minutes by commanding the spacecraft from Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Peenya, Bangalore.

With this engine firing, Chandrayaan-1's apogee (farthest point to Earth) has been raised to 37,900 km, while its perigee (closest point to the Earth) has been raised a little, to 305 km. In this orbit, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft takes about eleven hours to go round the Earth once.

India's first space craft to the Moon Chandrayaan-1 (name of the Moon craft in Sanskrit) was launched by PSLV-C11 rocket on October 22, 2008, morning from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, 80 km from Chennai, but on the Andhra Pradesh coast.

The almost ten-storey high four-stage rocket placed Chandrayaan-1 in an elliptical orbit with a perigee of 255 km and apogee of 22,860 km. In this initial orbit, Chandrayaan-1 orbited the Earth once in about six and a half hours.

Following its successful launch, the SCC acquired the first signals and conducted preliminary operations on Chandrayaan-1. The Deep Space Network (DSN) at Bylalu village near Bangalore tracked the spacecraft in this orbit and received signals in S and X band and has sent commands to the spacecraft.

An Indian Space Research Organisation [ISRO] press release on Thursday quoting senior officials said all systems onboard the spacecraft are functioning normally. Further orbit raising manoeuvers are planned in the coming few days.

ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair has indicated that that spacecraft will be injected into the lunar trajectory around November 8. The 1,308-kg spacecraft is carrying eleven payloads -- five ISRO and the other from international agencies like NASA, European Space Agency and the Bulgarian aerospace agency.

The two-year unmanned mission to the Moon, four lakh km away, will survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography.

Scientists hope that the data relayed by the spacecraft will throw some more light in understanding the origins of the solar system in general and the Moon in particular, especially its mineral and water content.

Some of the instruments in the spacecraft are: the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) to produce a high-resolution map of the Moon; the Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI) to perform mineralogical mapping; the Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) will determine the surface topography. An X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to monitor solar flux and a High
Energy X-ray/gamma ray spectrometer to measure degassing and other radioactive elements.

Among foreign tech centres participating in this Indian Moon mission are Brown University, NASA-funded Jet Propulsion Lab, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Polish Academy of Science and University of Bergen, Naval Air Warfare Center, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Sandia National
Laboratories.

The spacecraft is mainly powered by its solar array, which includes one solar panel covering a total area of 2.15 x 1.8 m2 generating 700W of power, which is stored in a 36 A/h Lithium-ion battery and it also uses a bipropellant integrated propulsion system to reach lunar orbit as well as orbit and attitude maintenance while orbiting the Moon.

The Russian space agency is in talks with ISRO for Chandrayaan-2 project where ISRO hopes to land a motorised rover on the Moon in two or three years from now. The 30kg to 100kg rover will be designed to move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do in situ chemical analysis and send the data to the mother-spacecraft Chandrayaan II, orbiting above it and in transmit data back to the Earth.

The Moon Impact Probe (MIP), made by ISRO scientists, will be ejected once it reaches 100 km orbit around the Moon; MIP also has a high resolution mass spectrometer, an S-Band altimeter and a video camera. The interesting feature with the MIP is that it carries a picture of the Indian national flag making India the fourth to plant a flag on the Moon after Russia, USA and Japan.

Chandrayaan-I - What they told on Success

2008-10-23T05:52:00.001-07:00

The launch of Chandrayaan-I, India’s first unmanned moon mission, was almost deferred minutes before blast-off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. “The flow of propellant in the second phase of the vehicle was not right and we had to take corrective measures. The problem, which was noticed on Monday evening, continued to bother us till the last hour,” project director M Annadurai said. But finally everything fell in place.

PSLV takes off in three seconds as a cloud of fire blurs vision

Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair (centre) with fellow scientists at a press conference at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota soon after the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1

It is a historic moment. We have begun our journey to the moon. It has been a remarkable performance by the launch vehicle (PSLV C11), which was perfectly launched. Every parameter of the mission performed as per the plan.
-Madhavan Nair, Isro chairman

“This marks the first step in what we hope will be a historic milestone in India’s space programme. I congratulate all the scientists associated with this mission for the successful completion of the first step. When completed, the mission will put India in the very small group of six countries, which have thus far sent space missions to the moon.”
-Manmohan Singh, Prime minister

“This day shall go down as a landmark in our space programme, a day which will inspire our space scientists to further work on our mission to put an Indian astronaut into space using an Indian space capsule. Congratulations to you and your team at Isro for the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1... I am keenly looking forward to the entry of Chandrayaan-1 into the lunar orbit a few days from now.”
-Pratibha Patil, President

“Our space scientists have made the country proud with this extraordinary achievement that expands our scientific knowledge about the moon and demonstrates the high level of technological capabilities of our scientists. I congratulate our space scientists and all those associated with this successful mission to the moon for this splendid achievement.”
-Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Vice president

“The US congratulates India on the successful launch. This is a proud moment in Indian history and demonstrates India’s technological prowess by joining the international community in the peaceful exploration of space.”
-David Mulford, US ambassador to India

“We congratulate Isro on the successful launch this morning and we are eagerly looking forward to science to begin.”
-David Southwood, director of science, ESA

“It was an emotional experience all over again and it gave me the opportunity to relive my flight itself… I must say the tension was higher … this was different. ISRO has kind of come of age and is ready to take on exploration in a big way,”
-Rakesh Sharma, India’s first man in space

“Launching of the mission is first step and I hope every step of the mission falls at the right place.”
-APJ Abdul Kalam, Former president of India

India's first moon mission is world's 68th

2008-10-21T08:57:00.001-07:00

Chandrayaan-1, that lifts off Wednesday morning from Sriharikota, is India's first and the world's 68th mission to the moon, the earth's closest celestial body which has fascinated children, scientists and poets alike.

{lsquo}{lsquo}Through the ages, the moon, our closest celestial body, has aroused curiosity in our mind, far more than any other objects in the sky,{rsquo}{rsquo} says the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its maiden moon mission.

The world's first moon mission was by the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on Jan 2, 1959, followed two months later by the US on March 3.

Between them, the two countries have sent 62 missions to probe the moon with the US stealing a march over the then cold war rival USSR by landing a man on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Japan broke the monopoly of the two superpowers on Jan 24, 1990 by sending its spacecraft Hiten to orbit the moon. The European Space Agency launched its probe in September 2003. China sent its spacecraft Chang-e last year.

The first hard landing on the moon was on Sep 12, 1959 by Soviet Union's Luna 2.

The first photos from the moon were taken by Oct 4, 1959 from the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3.

On Jan 26, 1962, the US Ranger 3 missed the Moon by 36,793 km.

The Soviet Union's Luna 6 did worse on June 8, 1965 missing the moon by 160,000 km.

Luna 9 made up for it on Jan 31, 1966 by becoming the first spacecraft to soft land on the moon.

The Indian mission to the moon was proposed at a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1999.

Then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced the project was on course in his Independence Day speech on Aug 15, 2003.

The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is cuboid in shape, weighs 1,304 kg at launch and 590 kg at lunar orbit. It will carry 11 payloads, including six from abroad.

A canted single-sided solar array will generate required power for the spacecraft during its two-year mission. The solar array generates 700 watts of peak power. During eclipse the spacecraft will be powered by Lithium ion (Li-Ion) batteries.

The spacecraft employs an X-band, 0.7-metre diameter parabolic antenna for payload data transmission.

The Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TTC) communication is in S-band frequency and scientific payload data transmission in X-band frequency.

The spacecraft has three Solid State Recorders (SSRs) to record data from various payloads.

SSR-1 will store science payload data and has capability of storing 32 GB data.

The 8 GB SSR-2 will store science payload data along with spacecraft attitude information, satellite house keeping and other auxiliary data.

The third SSR with 10 GB SSR is for storing M3 (Moon Mineralogy Mapper) payload data.

On the ground, Chandrayaan-1 will be tracked by the Deep Space Station (DSN), Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) and Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC).

The spacecraft will blast off on an upgraded version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, built first in the early 1990s by ISRO.

PSLV is ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle. The upgraded version, PSLV-C11, has a liftoff weight of 316 tonnes.

Chandrayaan-1 costs Rs.3.86 billion (about $76 million): Rs.530 million (about $11 million) for Payload development, Rs.830 million (about $17 million) for Spacecraft Bus,

Rs.1 billion ($20 million) for Deep Space Network, Rs.1 billion ($20 million) for PSLV launch vehicle, and Rs.500 million ($10 million) for scientific data centre, external network support and programme management expenses.

Countdown to moon mission begins

2008-10-20T08:02:00.001-07:00

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch Chandrayaan-1, the country's first unmanned moon mission, with the be ginning of 49- hour countdown early on Monday.

"The countdown for the launch of Chandrayaan-1, which began this morning at 5.22 am is progressing smoothly, SDSC Associate Director Dr M Y S Prasad said.

The unmanned spacecraft using India's tried and tested rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), would be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) in Sriharikota, about 80 km from here on Wednesday at 6.20 am.

All operations were progressing satisfactorily for the launch of the spacecraft. "The 49-hour countdown has number of activities including the major propellant filling of PS-2 and PS-4," he said.

Earlier the countdown was set to 52 hours. "Since all the formal activities for the launch was finished three hours earlier from the original schedule, the countdown time was set at exactly 5.22 am on Monday, Prasad said.

"About 43 tonnes of propellant would be filled during the countdown period. Pressurisation of actuators (mechanisms) will also be done at the same time," he added.

Prasad said it would take about 32 hours for both filling of propellants and pressurisation. Other things, including couple of launch testing will also be done during the period.

He said after the rehearsals, SDSC officials had ensured that everything was in place before the countdown. "All the preparatory works, including the checking of 11 payloads, were done successfully before the countdown," he said.

India will plant flag on the moon: ISRO chief

2008-10-20T08:01:00.001-07:00

Two days before the launch of India's first lunar orbiter, chairman of the

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G. Madhavan Na
ir said on Monday that
India will plant its flag on the moon to help establish its presence on the earth's only natural satellite.

India will drop its flag on the moon to establish its presence, Nair said in an interview. This will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia, and Japan to have its flag on the moon.

Asked for the geopolitical reason behind the planting of the flag, Nair said: "Today, as per the international charter, the moon belongs to the global community. Nobody can make special claim on the surface. But in due course, we don't know how things will change. But our presence will be established through this mission."

Nair also reiterated in the interview that ISRO planned to put a man in space by 2015. "If certain finer observation are to be made, online decisions have to be made, the presence of man becomes important," he said.

"The man behind the instrument. And also the reaction time for any decision will be a fraction of a second, whereas you know it takes almost eight seconds for the data to come from the moon to the earth and then again sent back and so on, and here also somebody has to analyse....so ultimately if you want to do a perfect experiment, man behind the instrument is a must."

Nair said it would cost around Rs.100 billion to put a man in space. However, he added, "in the Indian context we are committed to taking the space technology for grass root applications. We have done that and we will continue to do so. So nearly 80 percent of the budget is going to be spent on programmes which are relevant to the common man."

The lunar orbiter mission Chandrayaan that will be launched Wednesday will look for water on the moon, Nair confirmed. "If you are thinking of establishing lunar colony, water is essential element for that and if from it you can generate oxygen, and also if you can decompose and generate into fuel which is required for interplanetary travel, so the presence of water is a very-very important element for further exploration."

Nair also confirmed that the mission would look for Helium-3, one of the fuels for nuclear fusion. "Even one tonne of that can sustain the entire country's energy for one year," he pointed out. Reiterating that there was Helium-3 on the moon, he added: "Is it in abundant quantity, whether we can exploit, these are question marks."

The ISRO chief said that after the moon, the organisation had its sights set on Mars. "The GSLV can take a nearly 500 kg spacecraft to Mars. So if there are good ideas about experimental exploration of that system we can have the Mars mission and in about 3-4 years."

"If we want to maintain our leadership naturally we have to have the scientific goals which is set ahead so that we can be really either at par or ahead of the others in some of the fields. So this is a really challenging task. We believe that India, such a big nation, huge resources, both natural and human resource... we should be in leadership position as far as our space technology is concerned."

Asked if the space programme was cost effective, Nair said that for every rupee spent, ISRO gave back Rs.1.50 to the Indian society. "That is the first part of it. The second part is, the human resource and the technology we create, that is not valued. That is tremendous."

Asked if India have a colony on the moon sometime, Nair said: "We cannot lag behind others in this race. We have to really catch up and we should have our own technology for the manned capsule.

"Of course initial thing would be around earth itself, then from there how to send a man to the moon etc has to be considered. And today with the economic growth what you are seeing in the country this is affordable.

"And a very small fraction of the national budget we spend on space technology. It is really worth it. In fact if you take the entire budget for the space programme it is like 0.2-0.3 (percent) of the national budget. So it is very small compared to...others are using even up to 2 or 3%."

A giant step

2008-10-19T11:15:00.001-07:00

There is nothing loony about India’s moon mission, which will get off the starting blocks with the launch of Chandrayaan-I on Wednesday.

It comes 39 years after first moon landing, and 50 years after the space race began between the US and the then Soviet Union. The Americans had abandoned its moon missions in the mid-1970s and focus shifted in the 1980s and 1990s to space exploration and the International Space Station project.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been meticulously upgrading its satellite launch vehicles with the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), and it is moving towards the Geo-Synchronic Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSL) model.

India is a player in space programmes, but the projects so far have been about slotting
communication and other satellites in the near earth orbits — so crucial for global telecommunication networks that underpin the information society.

With Chandrayaan-I, India enters another league. This is the first major step on the part of India to do research work on its own. The lunar missions of the past have not really unravelled all the scientific aspects of the earth’s natural satellite.

Exploring the moonscape for minerals, and even possible fuels remains to be accomplished. It would be a mistake to dismiss the Indian effort as a me-too enterprise; it would be fairer to say that it picks up from where the former moon missions left off.

There are two aspects to the Chandrayaan project. The first is the very exercise of putting a satellite in the lunar orbit to study the planet closely. It is an artificial window to the moon. This exercise hones the skills of Indian scientists to place vehicles, modules and satellites of various sizes in the space.

The other is the study of the moon itself, which is going to expand our knowledge of the nearest planet that orbits round the earth. It will open up fields which could be of immense importance in the future.

There is of course the public relations quotient of the whole enterprise. Chandrayaan-I is going to place India in the league of the few countries engaged in space research, and it is certainly a national morale booster.

At a time when things look quite gloomy on the economic and political fronts, we have cause to rejoice in the country’s ever-growing capability in the frontier field of space research and exploration. Commercial spin-offs are aplenty, and it could serve as an ignition key of economic growth. Our space scientists have earned our admiration.

Mile stones on the road to India’s first moon mission

2008-10-19T11:07:00.001-07:00

Chandrayaan-I (Indian Lunar Craft-I) is an unmanned lunar exploration mission by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The mission includes a lunar orbiter as well as an impactor. The spacecraft will be launched by a modified version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The ISRO has identified Mylswamy Annadurai as Project Chief.

The spacecraft is scheduled for launch on October 22 with a window fixed between October 19 and October 28.

The scientific payload has a total mass of 90 kg and contains six Indian instruments and six foreign instruments.

The main mile stones in the development the first Indian moon mission are as follows.

1992:

· ISRO planned for the mission

· The plan for the first moon mission discussed at the annual conference of the Indian academy Of Sciences

2000:
A task force 100 scientists constituted to work out the technical aspects of the mission
Membership to International Moon Exploration Club sought

2001:

· Parliament’s approval given to go ahead with the mission

2003:

· Agreement with European Space Agency for the technical support reached

2004:

· Official declaration for sending the space craft for the exploration of the moon made

· Work to fabricate the space craft started

2005:
Concurrently, the work started for the second moon mission

2006:
US agreed to give two instruments to be carried on board

2008:
Fabrication work and laboratory testing for various functions done

Launch formalities completed for Oct 20, 2008

Space network, a 'hotline' from Bangalore to moon

2008-10-18T21:41:00.001-07:00

When India's first lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 lifts off from Sriharikota Wednesday, the telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) of the space agency in Bangalore will guide the mission on its 18-day voyage to the moon's polar orbit.

Soon after reaching the lunar orbit, the Deep Space Network (DSN) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at Byalalu, about 40 km from this tech hub, will take charge of the spacecraft and become a 'hotline' between its payloads and space scientists over the next two years.

"The ground facilities of the Chandrayaan mission comprising the spacecraft control centre (SSC) at Istrac, DSN and space science data centre (ISSDC) at Byalalu will be the channel of communication, monitoring the spacecraft's health, including its orbit and altitude and conduct its payload operations," Istrac director S.K. Shivakumar told IANS.

These three ground facilities will also process the wealth of data from the mission for scientists and technologists with auxiliary information. It will also be a storage centre of payload and spacecraft data.

As the focal point of the operational phase, Istrac's s-band network stations will support the mission during the launch and early orbit phase, which includes earth transfer orbit, with an apogee of about 100,000 km.

The network's other stations are located at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and at Port Louis in Mauritius. Depending on the mission requirements, network stations at Biak (Indonesia) and Bears Lake (Russia) will also be involved in the operation.

"The antennae at the network stations have been configured to support the mission during the transfer orbits, with two-carrier reception and uplink in s-band. The stations are also equipped for remote control from the network control centre," Shivkumar explained.

The SCC will store command files forwarded from the control centre for transmission to the spacecraft as per the marked time. The tracking data comprising range, Doppler and Angle data of the spacecraft will be transferred to the control centre for orbit determination. The payload data will be transmitted to ISSDC for further processing.

"Mission activities will be conducted from SCC. The spacecraft's health-keeping data will be monitored in real-time to ensure smooth functioning of the onboard systems.

"Telecommand for change in on-board configurations and payload operations will be up-linked after verification, simulation and due authorisation. The centre will also be equipped to handle special operations and contingency recovery," Shivakumar noted.

The DSN will transmit radio commands to the spacecraft during all the phases of the mission. It will also receive radio signals from the spacecraft, however feeble they become by the time they reach the earth.

The DSN consists of two large parabolic antennas - one with 18-metre diameter and the other with 32-metre diameter. The 32-metre antenna with its seven-mirror beam waveguide system has been indigenously designed, developed, built, installed, tested and qualified.

"The DSN with its base band system adhering to CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) standards will facilitate cross-support among the telemetry tracking command agencies," Shivakumar noted.

"The reception capability will be in both s-band and x-band. The base-band system will adhere to CCSDS standards. The station is also equipped to control remotely from the Istrac network control centre," the director said.

"All payload data in its raw form along with auxiliary spacecraft data will be received at DSN station. The data will be archived at the ISSDC, This data centre will be the repository of data from all science experiments," Shivakumar added.

The data will be processed with software. Its dissemination will be carried out as per policy guidelines of the space agency.

Going forward, as nucleus of India's space exploration missions, the DSN will be used for observations of celestial bodies in the solar system and for radio-astronomy observations of the universe.

For instance, the DSN provides planetary and solar scientists with data about changes in a radio signal as a spacecraft passes through a planet's atmosphere. Scientists interpret such data to better understand planetary atmosphere.

The next mission for which DSN will be used will be Astrosat, a unique 1,000-kg space telescope designed to scout for galactic clusters, new stars beyond the Milky Way and a variety of cosmological phenomenon.

India to leave mark on the moon

2008-10-18T20:02:00.001-07:00

On his nightly stroll, G Madhavan Nair, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), used to gaze at the moon for its luminous beauty. Now, whenever he hears the word ‘moon', which he does hundreds of times a day, he thinks of the 1,304-kg spacecraft carrying the 29-kg moon impact probe that will crash land on the lunar surface, just days after PSLV-C11 takes off at 6.20 am on October 22.

Nair told STOI that he'll start to gaze at the moon once again, but with a very real professional interest, "when our mission reaches there." At present, he's busy preparing for the "big event". He says he has no time to look at the moon because "I have to look at the thousand engineers and technicians who have been working on this for three years. For the last three weeks, they've been working round the clock."

Senior ISRO scientists, including Nair, PSLV-C11 project director George Koshi and VSSC director K Radhakrishnan, have been shuttling between their offices across the country and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, an island by the sea, 100 km north of Chennai. On Saturday, a ‘dress rehearsal' was held. The 45-metre PSLV-C11 was taken out of the vehicle assembly building to the umbilical tower of launch pad (No. 2), about 600 m away, and brought back.

Even as a team of 120 engineers and technicians from VSSC Thiruvananthapuram monitors the launch vehicle, another 75-member team is conducting vehicle assembly and static tests (VAST). A core group of 50 scientists and technicians from Bangalore's Satellite Centre is closely monitoring the spacecraft's health.

"The real action begins at 2.20 am Monday when the 52-hour countdown begins," says a scientist. "About 13 hours before the launch, the liquid propellant will be filled. After that, it's a second-by-second monitoring of precision." As PSLV-C11 stands majestically near the launch pad, 5 km from mission control, Madhavan Nair is composed, but cautious.

"This is a complex and difficult mission. For the first time, we are going beyond gravity and into lunar orbit. We've been simulating the manoeuvres for almost two years," he says. He says the weather, with the onset of the North-East monsoon, may be the biggest worry of them all. "We have a window period from October 22 to 28. Hope everything goes well."

The local population is cheering on Operation Moon. "I have seen many launches, but this time it's the moon we are aiming at," says a woman who has a shop at the space centre gates. Shafiullah, a 28-year-old fisherman from Navipet village, 16 km away, says a launch means no work for him, as fishermen aren't allowed to venture out to sea. "But we don't mind that," he says, "We're thrilled at the thought of India leaving its mark on the moon." At the Space Centre School, young boys argue over the chances of the moon probe landing or crashing on the lunar surface. Moon gazing has become everybody's business.

Moonstruck. Why?

2008-10-18T19:59:00.001-07:00

The year was 1999. The date: May 11. The occasion: the first anniversary of Pokhran-II, the nuclear blasts that allowed India to gatecrash closed club of nuclear power states. Speaking on the occasion, K Kasturirangan, the then chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), broached an idea that would stir fierce debate within the Indian scientific community.

Kasturirangan suggested that India could now aim for the moon using its indigenously-developed Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which had a successful track record of putting satellites into space. Nearly 10 years later, ISRO is on the verge of making the suggestion a reality. But as the mission enters its final decisive phase, it may be time to ask again if the country really stands to benefit from going to the moon. Also, why does India need to go the moon at all when the Americans and Russians have already done that more than 40 years ago?

Scientists say Chandrayaan's benefits will not become immediately apparent. It will take at least 30 to 40 years to do so. Today, thanks to the satellites launched many years ago, even remote villages can rely on access to telephones and medical care through telemedicine. Similarly, if Helium 3, which is reported to be present on the lunar surface, is brought back to earth, it could help solve the energy crisis. A tonne of Helium 3, says experts, can generate a year's supply of energy. Minerals found on the lunar surface could be commercially exploited by India. "It's a long-term plan. We will need the minerals not just for the earth, but also when we colonise the moon or move to Mars," says T K Alex, director of Bangalore's ISRO Satellite Centre.

But it is the other spin-offs from research and development that could really change things. More jobs will be created when India manufactures the components necessary for further missions; revenue will flow in when India leases the PSLV and GSLV launch vehicles to other countries. Scientists argue that there are other intangible advantages as well. Attracting youngsters to space studies and aerospace research is one.

Most important, perhaps, it would propel India into a different league. Amitabha Ghosh, an Indian space scientist at NASA, says, "Successful execution of the project would tremendously enhance the country's brand value.
Just as the Corus deal proved that India has arrived in the world of business, Chandrayaan-I will hugely boost the confidence of Indians. It would also be recognition that India has arrived in the Space Club and will be proof that its engineering talent can pull off a complex project of this magnitude. The price tag is not prohibitive either: the mission will cost less than 0.1% of India's revenue collection."

At an estimated cost of Rs 386 crore, India's outing to the moon would be much cheaper than purchasing a Boeing 747. Skeptics insist that the money could have been spent on more ‘useful' projects such as feeding India's poor, but many in the scientific community say cost is hardly the right reason to argue against Chandrayaan.

Instead, it is the duplication of effort by other countries decades ago. As Jayant Murthy, professor of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, points out, "Scientific know-how from the mission would not stand up to genuine peer review. In other words, one could put together a more scientifically-compelling mission for the same money and effort, perhaps not focussed on lunar research but on other topics of current interest."

But ISRO officials say Chandrayaan is not a "me too" effort. "Despite many manned and unmanned missions undertaken in the last four-and-a-half decades, not everything about the moon is fully understood," says ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair. "One of the main objectives of Chandrayaan-I would be to fill the gaps in our knowledge of the moon. Besides, it will also help increase the sophistication of our space systems like INSAT and IRS."

S K Chakrabarti, senior professor at the department of Astrophysics and Cosmology in Kolkata's S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, adds that "we don't have to follow China or any other country. Look at Russia. They have benefited so much more without sending a manned mission to the moon."

ISRO scientists believe that Chandrayaan will enable them to reach a new level of expertise. "India already had the basic elements - like indigenously-developed PSLV rocket launchers - that were required to attempt a project like this. The challenge was in scaling up our capabilities to the level required for such a mission," says a senior ISRO scientist.

To illustrate the level of this scability, Chandrayaan-I would be launched just like any other satellite using the PSLV. But while other ISRO satellite launches, such as INSAT and IRS, targeted the earth's orbit and went a maximum distance of 36,000 km, Chandrayaan will travel nearly 10 times further, since the moon is 3,86,000 km from the earth.

"The surmounting of such challenges and the successful launch of Chandrayaan-I would no doubt be a step forward in India's space odyssey," says George Joseph, former director of the Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre, who chaired the Lunar Mission Study Task Force set up by ISRO to study the mission's feasibility. "It is important for India to consider the scenario 100 years from now when human colonies on the moon could become a reality. India should be in the forefront of this challenging and exciting endeavour."

If Chandrayaan-I makes it to the moon successfully, it would admittedly be a small step for space missions around the world but could it be a giant leap for India's space programme?

Moon mission has strategic and economic value: Kalam

2008-10-18T09:01:00.001-07:00

As scientists are gearing up for the maiden launch of India's unmanned moon mission, former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Saturday said it would help the country economically as well as strategically.

"The mission has economic and strategic value," Kalam told reporters on the sidelines of a function here when asked to comment on the ambitious mission. He, however, refused to elaborate on it further.

The lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-I, India's first space mission beyond the earth's orbit, is scheduled for blast off on October 22 from the Sriharikota spaceport.

Chandrayaan-1 aims at expanding scientific knowledge about the moon, upgrade India's technological capability and provide challenging opportunities for planetary research to the younger generation of Indian scientists.

These well-defined objectives would be achieved through high-resolution remote sensing of moon in visible, near infrared microwave and x-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Meanwhile, ISRO scientists began launch rehearsal exercises at the Sriharikota spaceport as part of preparatory drill for the blast off.

A 52-hour countdown for the mission is expected to commence in the early hours of October 20.

India's most ambitious space mission to date would undertake comprehensive mapping of the Moon for the first time in the world. Earlier missions to moon by some other countries were aimed at specific regions or looked at only certain aspects.

We Can Easily Catch Up With China'

2008-10-18T08:57:00.001-07:00

What does the moon mission mean to ISRO and India? What message does it send out to the world?

First of all, it is a major technology challenge. So far we have sent our satellites to a distance of nearly 36,000 kms and put them in a geo-stationary orbit. But, for the first time we are travelling 400,000 kms. To reach near the moon and put the satellite in a suitable orbit around it, poses a lot of technology challenge in terms of tracking, orbit determination, navigation, guidance and so on. Apart from this, the mission is unique because we are trying to map the entire lunar surface in terms of its terrain features and mineralogical content. We hope to provide a lot of inputs to the scientific community on the various aspects of the moon, on its origin and then in turn to throw light on the origin of the earth itself.

The moon mission is happening around the same time as the nuclear deal, the economy is also vibrant? Are there linkages between the three? Has India truly and finally arrived?

We have established ourselves in both atomic energy and space. Today we are treated in par by the developed nations in these areas. It is time to give a major thrust to the future developments in this area and maintain a leadership position. Our economic growth and vibrancy is going to help us in this. We are spending hardly 0.5 per cent of our national budget on our scientific programmes, if this could be increased it will help us emerge as world leaders in many other areas of science and technology too. The overall national income is also going up and this will definitely help us in many ways.

ISRO has been a great and transparent institution. It has delivered one success after another. Does our political establishment appreciate this?

At all times, all governments have been very supportive of the space programme for chiefly two reasons: Firstly because it is a hi-tech area. Secondly, we are able to provide a wide range of services to the country. Take for instance agriculture resource management or water resource management or for that matter natural resource management in general -- the quality of inputs that has been coming from our space programme has tremendously increased the productivity and income of large sections of our people. Again, the communication and connectivity that we are providing through our satellites across the length and breadth of the country meets the national needs. Successive governments have been supportive of our work and the fact that in the last few years we have been getting roughly a 20-25 per cent increase in our annual budget is indicative of that support. Most of our budget goes towards meeting national priority needs. We work in a very democratic fashion. Our projects go through an elaborate process of consultation with various government departments and scientists. We have also learnt to deliver our services on time and in a cost effective manner. The fact that more or less the successive prime ministers of India have held the space portfolio has helped us in removing procedural hurdles.

Does Chandrayaan come at an inflection point in ISRO's life? A sort of midlife crisis? Is that why you are moving from societal application to space exploration?

We could be at an inflection point, but what we are spending on Chandrayaan is hardly only three per cent of our budget over the last five years. It is a small fraction. But, the amount of technological advancement we will see as a result of this and the national pride that the mission brings is tremendous. Also, we have to lay the foundation for the future. The exploration of planets whether it is the moon or mars, the exploration of the solar system or the galaxies have become very interesting topics for the scientific community.

(2 of 3)
To create a scientific temperament in the nation and create a new generation of space scientists missions like Chandrayaan are needed. We plan to set aside aside 10-15 per cent of our budgets toward advanced R&D both in space science and space technologies. We are actually not moving away from societal application, but only further expanding it. You never know, what we find today may be of use for the next generation. Suppose we are able to find helium three on the moon, and we can commercially exploit that, it will be of great use to our atomic programme.

How do you handle criticism from a section of the people that a poor nation like India shouldn't be wasting money on projects like Chandrayaan?

We have faced this question in the early phase of the programme. We are convinced that we are doing more service to the society than the money spent on the programme. But to doubly assure ourselves, we asked a school of economics in Chennai a couple of years back to make an assessment. The report they submitted was really mind-boggling. They found that what we have given back to the society in terms of products and services is something like one and half times more than the cumulative investment made on the entire space programme. Leave alone the infrastructure, the technology, the human resources and the various laboratories we have developed, if we add all that it is certainly more than five times spent on the programme.

Do you think this is an Asian century? China, Japan and now India are all into lunar missions?

I think it is correct in a way. Though these countries are underdeveloped in some areas they have given enough importance to scientific development. What you are seeing in terms of space exploration is a culmination of that. China and Japan have not only sent lunar missions but also have very ambitious plans for planetary exploration.

How do you compare India with China?

Compared to China we are better off in many areas. For example our communication satellites are world class. Chinese still depend on some foreign companies to supply some components. On launchers, we have very advanced capability. As far as manned-mission is concerned we are lagging behind, but that was a conscious decision on our part. Since it involves a lot of funds, in the initial phase of the moon programme we have not given thrust to that area. But given the funds and necessary approvals we can easily catch up with our neighbour in this area.

In the global space industry there was a lean period as far as the moon was concerned, nothing happened for decades, but why the sudden interest now?

For two reasons. One is the prospects of minerals which could be exploited and the second is that if you want to get into inter-planetary travel or go beyond the solar system, we need an intermediary base. Instead of having an artificial system like a space station, if we have a base in moon it may help us. That is the kind of future vision that space agencies are developing.

When will India put a man on moon?

We have a dream to put a man on moon with our own vehicle system by 2015.

Other planetary explorations?

About Mars we have given some thought. We can have a spacecraft going to the planet by 2012. But we are still looking for good scientific ideas on inter-planetary missions.

Personally for you what is it that is very significant about this moon mission?

Basically the technical challenges. We decided to put the deep space tracking network on our own. We developed it indigenously through ECIL and BARC. It was a major decision and I am happy that we now have a really world class facility.

You were travelling abroad with the PM recently, what were people in other countries asking you about the moon mission?

People are very much looking forward to the success of this mission for different reasons. First of all, a country like India is doing this. Secondly, it is seen as a fine example of international co-operation in space exploration. We have instruments from the US and Europe flying on board along with our instruments. Our scientists and scientists from these two continents are working together. No other country has had technological co-operation to the extent that we have had in the context of our moon mission.

Is the moon mission also about attracting young talent to ISRO?

Young, bright scientists can be attracted only by technology challenges. Money is a factor that counts but more than that it is technology challenges that are important. We have full clarity about what ISRO should be doing for the next 20 years. There are a lot of fascinating things that we intent to pursue. Our vision plan will put forward a big bouquet of technology challenges and these challenges I hope will attract young talent. It is very difficult to get young talent, but the fact that attrition rate at ISRO is less than 10 per cent shows that money is not the only factor for people who have joined us and are wanting to join us. In IT industries where they pay hefty packets, they talk of an attrition rate of 25 to 30 per cent. I don't mean to say that scientists need not be remunerated well. We have taken up these issues with the government and we are very positive about getting a better package. To train young scientists we have also started the Indian Institute of Space Technology, which is a unique institution in the world. We take in youngsters at plus two level and after four years of education they are guaranteed a job in ISRO. This specialised education will bring the best talent to work with us in the future.

Astrologers to astronomers: Oct 22 good day for moon mission launch

2008-10-17T20:44:00.001-07:00

There are astrologers among the astronomers in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) too. They have declared that the day set for the country’s first moon mission, Oct 22, will be aupicious.Seven years ago, on Oct 22, 2001, ISRO had successfully launched a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C3) carrying three satellites - one of its own and two from overseas.

The Indian satellite was the 1,108 kg Technology Experiment Satellite and its co-passengers were Bird from Germany weighing 92 kg and the Belgian satellite Proba that weighed 94 kg.

That was the second time ISRO had launched three satellites in one flight. The earlier occasion was in 1999 when PSLV-C2 slung the 1,050-kg Indian Remote Sensing satellite IRS P4, DLR-Tubsat (45 kg) of Germany and South Korean satellite Kitsat weighing 110 kg.

ISRO officials have been making a replica of every rocket they fly and placing it at the feet of Lord Balaji at the Hindu holy city of Tirupati a day before every launch. Tirupati is close to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, the launch site.

India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan will be ISRO’s 27th launch and PSLV’s 14th flight.

Chandrayaan-1 ISRO - India's Moon Mission Animation by Thejes

2008-10-17T10:18:00.001-07:00

Video at http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=ipBOotJDJ1k

Chandrayaan-I mated with rocket for launch on 22 October

2008-10-17T09:34:00.001-07:00

Taking a vital step closer to the launch of India's maiden unmanned mission to the moon, the Chandrayaan-1 lunar spacecraft has been mated with the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) that will carry it to its orbit 100 kilometres above the moon's surface, after blasting off from the Sriharikota spaceport on 22 October.

ISRO officials have reported satisfactory progress of the project as they move towards the final countdown. Barring a cyclone threat or adverse weather, the PSLV-C11 is set to keep its date with India's pioneering lunar mission that is set to blast off on the country's historic mission on 22 October at 6.20 am.

In Bangalore, ISRO spokesperson S Satish said that the heat-shield closing operations around the spacecraft have been completed, and the integrated test of the home-grown launch vehicle PSLV-C11 is progressing satisfactorily for launch on 22 October at 0620 hours. He said the 52-hour countdown for the blast-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, 100 kilometres from Chennai is expected to start in the early hours of 20 October.

In the next stage, the 1,300 kilogramme spacecraft would be moved to the launch pad, which will be done sometime before tomorrow morning, according to the centre's associate director Dr M Y S Prasad. He said a series of tests would be conducted prior to the launch.

India's 32 m antenna to track moon mission inaugurated

2008-10-17T09:28:00.001-07:00

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday inaugurated its 32 metre deep space network (DSN) antenna at Byalalu, 40 kms from Bangalore, which will track the country's first unmanned lunar mission scheduled to be launched on October 22.

The antenna will track the mission and relay data to the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) set up in Bangalore.

"As a part of DSN, this antenna will provide telemetry, command and science data reception from the 11 payloads functions for all space mission. It will go on to provide services to any satellite, may it be Indian or foreign," said the chairman and managing director of Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) K S Rajashekhara Rao.
The antenna was commissioned by the ECIL.
The 32-metre antenna, the first of its kind in India, was launched by ISRO chairman and secretary for department of space, G Madhavan Nair.

The antenna which has a life of 20 years, will begin tracking the chandrayaan-I satellite after six hours of the launch when it comes into the transferable orbit between the earth and moon.

The steerable 300-ton structure has the 32 meter diameterparabolic main reflector in cassegrain configuration. The reflector is illuminated by a series of precision machined mirrors arranged in beam waveguide make-up. "The antenna which can track satellites up to a few million kilometres that is beyond the solar system can be upgraded for deeper space missions," Rao said.

The system installed in the outskirts of Bangalore will however not affect the life at the village with the radio frequency waves. "When any RF wave coming below an angle of 5o the antenna switches off to avoid any damage to the life around," said Y S Mayya, director (technical) of ECIL.

India is the fourth country to have a DSN facility after the US, Russia and France.

India's first Moon mission - FAQs

2008-10-17T09:26:00.001-07:00

? What is Chandrayaan-1?

Chandrayaan-1 is a scientific investigation -- by spacecraft -- of the Moon. The name Chandrayaan means Chandra (Moon), Yaan (vehicle). Chandrayaan-1 is the first Indian planetary science and exploration mission.

? When, and from where, Chandrayaan-1 will be launched?

Chandrayaan-1 will be launched on October 22, 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota (SHAR).

? How long will it take Chandrayaan-1 to get to Moon?

It will take about 5 days for Chandrayaan-1 to get to the Moon.

? How close to Moon will Chandrayaan-1 come while orbiting the Moon?

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft will be in a 100 km polar orbit around the Moon.

? What are Chandrayaan' s scientific goals?

The Chandrayaan-1 mission is aimed at high-resolution remote sensing of the Lunar surface in visible, near Infrared, low energy X-rays and high-energy X-ray regions.

Specific scientific goals are:
To prepare a three-dimensional atlas (with a high spatial and altitude resolution of 5-10m) of both near and far side of the moon.
To conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for distribution of elements such as Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Calcium, Iron and Titanium with a spatial resolution of about 20 km and high atomic number elements such as Radon, Uranium & Thorium with a spatial resolution of about 40 km.

By simultaneous photo geological and chemical mapping we will be able to identify different geological units, which will test the hypothesis for the origin and early evolutionary history of the moon and help in determining the nature of the lunar crust.

What are the basic components of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft?

The basic components of the chandrayaan-1 spacecraft are:
The scientific payloads: the instruments that will gather science data.
The solar array that provides power to the spacecraft. Chandrayaan also carries a battery that stores the power generated by the solar array and feeds it to other systems.
The thrusters perform fuel burns to change the spacecraft's trajectory and attitude.
The various functional requirements of the spacecraft such as Attitude and Orbit Control, Command processing, House keeping telemetry, Sensor data processing, Thermal management, payload data handling operation, duel gimbaled data transmission antenna pointing, onboard mission management etc would be taken care by the Bus Management Unit (BMU).
The spacecraft also carries two star sensors and inertial reference unit based on miniaturized gyros providing absolute attitude.

? What are the scientific instruments onboard Chandrayaan-1?

There are altogether eleven scientific instruments onboard Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Five of them are Indian and other six are from European Space Agency (3), NASA (2) and Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1) selected through ISRO Announcement of Opportunity (AO). Two of the ESA instruments have Indian collaboration.

? What type of propulsion system will Chandrayaan-1 use? How much propellant will it carry?

Chandrayaan-1 will use bipropellant integrated propulsion system. The propulsion system consists of a unified bi-propellant system for orbit raising and attitude control.

It consists of one 440N engine and eight numbers of 22N thrusters, mounted on the negative roll face of the spacecraft. Two tanks each with a capacity of 390 liter are used for storing fuel and oxidizer.

? How will mission controllers communicate with the spacecraft?

If the spacecraft encounters a problem, it can establish contact with controllers on Earth through the Deep Space Network.

? Can the team fix the spacecraft from Earth?

If a component on the spacecraft fails, controllers on Earth can instruct Chandrayaan to bring a backup online. If the spacecraft points in the wrong direction, its attitude can be corrected. If the spacecraft deviates from the desired trajectory, a controlled burn (thruster firing) can be performed to put it back on track.

Most minor problems can be corrected from Earth with existing onboard instruction systems.

? How is the spacecraft powered?

The spacecraft is mainly powered by its solar array, which includes one solar panel covering a total area of 2.15 X 1.8 square meters, generating 700W power. The panels are made of materials rated to withstand extreme temperatures -- 119 degree C to minus 165 degree C.

The power produced by the solar array is stored in a Lithium-ion battery, and then distributed from the battery to the spacecraft subsystems. The power system is designed to support various phases of the mission. The power will supplement the mission with equal efficiency in both noon/midnight and dawn/dusk orbits.

The power system consists of power generation, energy storage and power conditioning elements. 36AH Li-Ion battery powers the spacecraft during orbital and lunar eclipses. Power electronics system controls the solar array power to supply the load and charge the batteries.

? What is the total budget for realising Chandrayaan-1 mission?

The budgetary estimate for realising the proposed Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 stands at Rs. 386 crore (about $76 million). This includes Rs 53 crore (about $11 million) for Payload development, Rs. 83 crore (about $17 million) for Spacecraft Bus, Rs 100 crore ($20 million) towards establishment of Deep Space Network, Rs 100 crore ($20 million) for PSLV launch vehicle and Rs 50 crore ($10 million) for scientific data centre, external network support and programme management expenses.

What other missions are scheduled to study Moon?

The first leap in Lunar observation was made by Galileo Galilei who used his new invention the telescope to observe mountains and craters on the lunar surface.

The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2 in September 1959. Luna 9 was the first probe to soft land on the Moon in February 1966 and transmit pictures from the Lunar surface.

The first robotic lunar rover to land on the Moon was the Soviet Lunokhod 1 in November 1970.

Humans first landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first man to walk on the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, commander of the American mission Apollo 11. The last man to walk on the Moon was in December 1972 by Eugene Cernan during Apollo 17 mission.

Moon samples have been brought back to Earth by three Russian Luna missions (16, 20, and 24) and the US Apollo missions 11, 12 and 14 through 17.

The European Space Agency has launched European spacecraft Smart1 on September 27 2003 to explore the Moon, survey the lunar environment and create an X-ray map of the Moon.

Japan has two planned lunar missions, LUNAR-A and Selene.

India plans to launch a lunar orbiter for simultanious chemical and mineralogical study of the lunar surface. The People's Republic of China has also expressed ambitious plans for exploring the Moon (Change series).

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of USA is designed to map the surface of the Moon and characterize future landing sites in terms of terrain roughness, usable resources, and radiation environment with the ultimate goal of facilitating the return of humans to the Moon.

Moonstruck: What Will India's Lunar Mission Achieve?

2008-10-16T19:50:00.001-07:00

In India as in other countries, the Muslim faithful wait for a glimpse of the moon to start their Eid al-Fitr celebrations. At the end of October, it will be the country's scientific community looking moonward. During a narrow temporal window beginning October 22, the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh plans to launch the Chandrayaan-I, the country's first moon mission. ("Chandrayaan" means "trip to the moon" in Hindi.) If the weather plays spoilsport, the launch could be postponed until December.

Critics of the country's space program would prefer that the unmanned launch be postponed indefinitely. Their complaints? First, that India is just reinventing the wheel: The moon mission proposes to do what other countries already have done. Second, that India is a poor country. Aren't there many other ways to put the funding the launch requires -- Rs. 386 crore (US$80 million) -- to better use?

"The kind of money involved in a moon mission is very high compared to the benefits," says Vasant Natarajan, associate professor in the physics department at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. "I think this money could be better spent on other things." India is generally viewed "as a Third World, poverty-stricken country," he notes. "If India puts a spacecraft into orbit [the perception will be] that India can do all this high-tech stuff but cannot provide its citizens with even basic necessities, and that there are people dying on the streets. This image is not going to change because of the moon mission."

The negative voices are every bit as strident abroad. According to The Times of London, "Critics say it is a waste of money for a country where 800 million out of a population of 1.1 billion live on less than US$2 a day, and where child malnutrition is on a par with that of sub-Saharan Africa."

"It's unquestionably true that India faces other tremendously important public policy challenges," says Jeremy Tobacman, Wharton professor of business and public policy who conducts research on the Indian agricultural sector, behavioral economics and development. "This might not be the best priority for India now."

Delhi's political class and parts of the establishment directly involved in the space effort conversely say that the moon mission is testimony to India's scientific prowess, and that some of the benefits will be immediate. The news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) quotes an unnamed Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) official as saying: "With China forging ahead in the space field, India cannot lag behind and miss the bus. Moreover, some kind of colonization of the moon cannot be ruled out in the coming decades. We have to have our presence."

But there is more to all this than chest thumping. "[The launch] will help India move a few notches up in the pecking order of nations," says Delhi-based political commentator Sumit Mitra. "It may be an indirect gain, but it is important considering that in the next 20 to 25 years we plan to sit at the high table with the big powers."

Since 1974, when it carried out a nuclear test at Pokhran, India has been a pariah in high-tech cooperation, particularly in areas such as space that could be used for missile technology. But Tobacman notes that international cooperation is a key ingredient in space research. "Most of the U.S. manned space program is focused on the international space station, which is a multinational collaboration, particularly with Russia," he says.

India's planned moon mission includes payloads (additional instruments) from other international space agencies, Tobacman notes. "Presumably, international space agencies are also contributing funding to accomplish this mission and it is achieving many of the objectives of international cooperation in space research."

History Revisited

Mitra cares little about the temporary glory that will come with sending a rocket to the moon. Rather, he talks about opportunity cost, and about India having missed out too often. "I think it is good that India is coming out of its centuries of technological backwardness and taking part in an international lunar mission.... It will be suicidal if we remain indifferent to explorations and pass up another opportunity."

Though the technology for the mission is Indian, several nations have been involved. The proposal first arose in a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1999, according to ISRO. A national lunar mission task force was constituted a few years later, and the Union government approved the project in November 2003. In July 2005, ISRO and the European Space Agency (ESA) signed an agreement to include European instruments onboard. In May 2006, a similar agreement was reached with NASA. Chandrayaan will carry as many as 11 payloads -- five from India, three from the ESA, one from the Bulgarian Space Agency and two from NASA.

"This will be our first step toward a manned mission to the moon," Chandrayaan project chief M. Annadurai told the Business Standard recently. According to a report by the Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology, "The mission can serve as a test-bed for future missions that could be undertaken by India to explore the outer world in the new millennium, thus providing challenging opportunities to the younger generation of scientists."

In layman's terms, according to ISRO, the Chandrayaan mission is aimed at high-resolution remote sensing of the moon. The specific scientific objectives are to "prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both the near and the far side of the moon" and "to conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for distribution of elements."

The 1,304-kilogram spacecraft will be launched by ISRO's highly successful polar satellite launch vehicle. By the time it reaches its 100-kilometer polar orbit of the moon, which it is scheduled to maintain for two years, the weight will have come down to 590 kilograms. The NASA contribution to the payload includes the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center, and the Moon Mineralogy Mapper from Brown University and the California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

A Race to Space?

All this may not mean much to the man on the street in Mumbai. But a question keeps surfacing: Is India being needlessly drawn into a space race?

If a space race indeed is occurring, China is far ahead of other Asian countries. Its first satellite, Dongfanghong-I, was launched in April 1970. China's entry into manned space flight was heralded by the unmanned Shenzhou-1 in November 1999. Shenzhou-5 in October 2003 sent an astronaut into space for more than 21 hours. In 2007, the country celebrated its first space walk.

China's moon focus began with the successful launch in October 2007 of the lunar orbiter Chang'e-1. Its objectives are to map the moon and probe for useful elements. Its lifespan is more than a year. The China National Space Administration has also announced plans to send robotic explorers to the moon by 2020 and manned missions a few years later. But with NASA's US$100 billion proposal to get back to the moon by 2018, the Chinese effort could speed up. In September, NASA officials unveiled the latest designs for the Ares V rocket and Altair moon lander in Washington, D.C. These are part of a larger Mars project, where the moon program is being used as a stress test.

Japan got off the starting block earlier, and then apparently lost drive. It launched the Oshumi-1 satellite in 1970. In the 1990s, its H2 rocket didn't perform to expectations. That and China's growing achievements led to the reorganization of Japan's space bodies. In October 2003, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the National Aerospace Laboratory and the National Space Development Agency were merged into JAXA -- the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

JAXA has delivered. Kaguya, the Selenological and Engineering Explorer, was launched in September 2007 and is in a polar orbit of the moon. Its objectives, which may sound familiar, are: "To obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the technology for future lunar exploration." JAXA plans its first manned mission to the moon in 2020.

Even smaller South Korea has ambitions. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute has been working with the Russians for satellite launch technology. It, too, has a moon mission slated for 2020. The objective: the "launch of a satellite for moon exploration by a Korean-developed launch vehicle."

Earthly Benefits

Everyone seems to be headed for the moon. Why not? asks Mitra. "Even if there is a 'space race' in Asia, it is good for all the participants, provided it does not turn into a race for obtaining Star Wars weapons," he says. "Man's knowledge of the world increased phenomenally because of the 'sea race' between Arabs and Europeans in the previous millennium."

ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair, however, disagrees that a space race exists. "Our priorities have been in providing societal services, based on our space assets," he told the news agency PTI recently. "We have been concentrating on earth observation and communication areas. Launch vehicles which are appropriate for these missions have been developed. We have developed technologies and systems required for national development. Now, since we have some breathing time, we are concentrating on planetary exploration and activities that are supposed to be taken up the next decade. In that context, we are taking up the proposals for the manned mission."

The U.K.-based New Scientist, a leading science and technology news magazine, framed the objectives in a 2005 article: "But why is India, a country that still has so many development problems on the ground, aiming for the heavens? To Indian scientists, the question is not only patronizing of their scientific aspirations, it betrays an ignorance of the Indian space program's greater purpose and successes against the odds.... Take, for example, India's six remote-sensing satellites -- the largest such constellation in the world. These monitor the country's land and coastal waters so that scientists can advise rural communities on the location of aquifers and where to find watercourses, suggest to fishermen when to set sail for the best catch, and warn coastal communities of imminent storms. India's seven communication satellites, the biggest civilian system in the Asia-Pacific region, now reach some of the remotest corners of the country, providing television coverage to 90% of the population. The system is also being used to extend remote health-care services and education to the rural poor."

Natarajan, of the Indian Institute of Science, agrees that the mission could produce such "earthly" benefits. "But the cost-benefit equation needs to be clear," he says.

A quantitative cost-benefit analysis may not be possible where social goals are involved. But India's space program has a commercial end, too. ISRO's marketing arm is Antrix Corp., a registered for-profit company. Antrix has been involved in commercial launches since May 1999, when it successfully sent into space Korean and German satellites as piggyback payloads onboard the polar satellite launch vehicle PSLV-C2. (Chandrayaan is being launched on PSLV-C11.) Antrix offers a range of products and services including Indian remote sensing hardware and software, transponder leasing, launch services, mission support, ground systems, spacecraft testing, and training and consultancy.

Sending up a satellite through Antrix and ISRO is much cheaper than using a U.S., Russian or French launch vehicle. Indians are known for their "frugal engineering." This is one of the reasons that every global automaker that wants to make a cheap car -- following in the footsteps of Tata Motors' Nano -- is setting up shop in India. The frugal engineering also responds to an objection: Is too much money being spent on the space program? "The money being spent on Chandrayaan is insignificant in relation to the gains," says Mitra.

ISRO, too, dismisses criticisms about cost. "The cost of the moon mission is less than US$80 million, which is just 10% of the annual budget of ISRO spread over many years," ISRO spokesman S. Satish told PTI. This cost includes US$20 million for the establishment of the Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu, near Bangalore, which will also serve future satellites.

In the capital Delhi, meanwhile, there is little advance cheering. One reason could be a number of failures in ISRO's early track record. The celebrations will probably start once the moon is in Chandrayaan's viewfinder.

"There is not much excitement in the capital's media because the moon, as a target for exploration, is generally regarded as old hat," says Mitra. "But it is not correct that the political class has overlooked the importance of India participating in the lunar missions. Chandrayaan-ll has recently received the Union Cabinet's sanction."

In September, a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved a budget of Rs. 425 crore (US$88 million) for a Chandrayaan-II Indo-Russian joint project, which aims to land a rover on the moon. The principal objective of the mission is "in situ chemical analysis and resource exploration." That should be in 2011-2012. A Mars mission is planned for 2013 and a manned space mission by 2014.

Chandrayaan – 1: To the moon, and beyond

2008-10-16T19:49:00.001-07:00

22 October would be a date that should effectively be etched in every Indian's memory, for on this date India's first mission to the moon, an unmanned one, would lift off from the Earth carrying with it 11 payloads of various scientific instruments with independent objectives - from mapping the lunar surface to conducting chemical and mineralogical mapping.

Chandrayaan-1 is scheduled to take off from Sriharikota at 6.20 am on 22 October - weather gods permitting. In case of unfavourable weather conditions the launch would be postponed to 23 October with the launch window remaining open till 26 October. Rain, thunder, lightning and cyclonic conditions would put the launch on hold since these pose significant risks to electronic circuits aboard the rocket and the spacecraft.

The four stages of the rocket have been completed. A regular PSLV has six strap-on motors attached to the first stage of the rocket that use nine tonnes of solid propellants.

However, for the rocket carrying Chandrayaan-1, the length of the strap-on motors has been extended from the standard 10 metres to 13.5 metres, with each using 12 tonnes of propellants. Not surprisingly, this particular PSLV, adapted specifically for the moon mission, has been designated "PSLV-XL".

How is it built? What does it have on board?
At launch the spacecraft will weigh 1,304 kilograms. However, when it reaches lunar orbit after traversing almost 386,000 kilometres from the earth, it would have lost all the weight of the propellants it burnt during its five and a half day journey, and would weigh less than half its launch weight at 590 kilograms. Its payloads collectively weigh 80 kilograms, of which 29 kilograms is that of the Moon Impact Probe (MIP).

Powered through a single solar array, Chandrayaan-1 will spend two years encircling the moon. Each revolution would be completed in 117 minutes, at an altitude of 100 kilometres above the moon's surface. Chandrayaan-1 will generate power through its canted single-sided solar array, using light-sensitive cells in its solar panels to generate 700 watts of power during peak period. During an eclipse, it will be powered by lithium batteries.

Mission director George Koshy says Chandrayan-1 will stay in its lunar orbit for two years, though it would be able to assimilate all targeted data within a year or and a half or so.

ISRO would have about half a year of spare lunar orbit time from Chandrayaan-1.

Chandrayaan-1 is has onboard thrusters that will alter its trajectory as needed. It has an inertial measurement unit that includes accelerometers and gyroscopes to measure the attitude. Three solid-state recorders aboard the spacecraft will record data from various payloads.

The rim of the Shackleton crater: location, location, location

The Chandrayaan-1 mission will focus on exploration of the South Pole, with the moon impact probe hitting the rim of the Shackleton crater of the moon at the South Pole sometime in mid-November.

The rim of the Shackleton crater is a location on the lunar surface that has been identified by US space agency NASA as the spot to establish a possible lunar outpost sometime around 2020.

The location at the rim of the Shackleton crater has strategic advantages. That specific place on the lunar surface has sunlight available around 90 per cent of the time, translating directly into abundant solar energy for power generation. Secondly, it is close to the Malapert Mountain, a 5-km high mountain that has a direct view of both the lunar South Pole and the earth, an ideal location for a radio relay station. Moreover, the sunlit areas of the pole and its surroundings make for moderate temperatures.

The US Defence Department's Clementine Orbiter and NASA's Lunar Prospector had indicated the presence of water in the form of ice in the lunar craters. The location also heightens the possibility of finding water in the dark areas of the pole.

ISRO, in collaboration with the US and Germany, may well be able to confirm the presence of water by sometime next year when data from instruments on board Chandrayaan-1 is analysed. If detected, water on the moon would open up ways for producing drinking water, oxygen and hydrogen fuel for bases on the moon and for rockets for future missions.

Satish Dhawan Space Centre associate director MYS Prasad says that of the 11 payloads on Chandraayan-1, four would work to detect water – the miniature synthetic aperture radar and the moon mineralogy mapper from the US, near infrared spectrometer from Germany, and India's hyper spectral imaging camera. The synthetic aperture radar is capable of detecting ice in the permanently shadowed regions on the lunar poles, up to a depth of a few metres.

Payloads
Five of the 11 payloads have been developed with Indian contribution, with the European Space Agency having designed three, United States two, and Bulgaria one instrument respectively. These are:

Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC):
TMC is a CCD camera developed by ISRO that will map the topography of both the near and the far side of the moon. It will prepare a three dimensional atlas with high spatial and altitude resolution that will aid the understanding of the lunar evolution process as well identify regions for detailed study.

Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI):
HySI is a CCD camera that is again developed by ISRO. It will obtain spectroscopic data for mineralogical mapping of the lunar surface, and will better existing data. It will study the mineralogical composition in deep crater regions of moon's interior.

Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI):
This ISRO-developed payload will provide data for determining the accurate height of lunar surface features, and will also help in determining the global topographical field of the moon. Additionally, it will also generate an improved model for the lunar gravity field.

High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX):
The ISRO-developed High-Energy X-ray spectrometer is designed to explore the possibility of exploring the moon's polar region that are supposed to be covered with thick water and ice deposits. Primarily, it is designed to study and identify regions of thorium and uranium deposits.

Moon Impact Probe (MIP):
An Indian payload that was initiated at the instance of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, this is the probe that will actually crash-land on the moon, and will demonstrate technologies needed to land a probe at a desired location on the lunar surface. The MIP will also qualify technologies needed for future soft landing missions, and will explore the moon from close range. This module too has been developed by ISRO.

Crash Land plan
Once Chandrayaan-1 reaches a lunar orbit at an altitude of 100 kilometres, ISRO will issue commands to re-orient and eject the MIP, which has an onboard motor that will fire for two seconds to slow the MIP's descent velocity to 75 metres per second. During its descent to the lunar surface, the MIP will activate its video-camera which will capture images of the lunar surface that will be instrumental in ISRO's decision to pick a suitable landing site for Chandrayaan-2's rover.

The MIP's altimeter will measure its altitude from the Moon's surface every second, while a third instrument, the mass spectrometer, will sense the moon's atmospheric constituents as it free falls to the lunar surface. All data would be transmitted to Chandrayaan-1 till the MIP crash-lands on the moon, which in turn would be beamed back to earth.

Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS):
Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS) is a fructification of the European Space Agency in collaboration with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK and the ISRO Satellite Centre. The objective of this instrument is to carry out high quality X-ray spectroscopic mapping of the moon, and a part of this payload has been redesigned by ISRO to suit Chandrayaan-1 scientific objectives.

Smart Near-IR Spectrometer (SIR-2):
SIR-2 has been developed by the Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Science, through the Max-Planck Society, Germany and the European Space Agency. Its objective is to analyse in detail the lunar surface in various geological/mineralogical and topographical units.

Radiation Dose Monitor Experiment (RADOM):
The RADOM payload comes from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. It will qualitatively and quantitatively characterise the radiation environment in a region of space near the moon, and provide an estimate of the dose map around moon at different altitudes and latitudes.

Sub Kev Atom reflecting Analyser (SARA):
SARA is part of the European Space Agency's contribution to the mission, created in collaboration with the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Sweden and Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO. This instrument will study the surface composition of the moon, the way the moon's surface reacts with solar winds and the magnetic anomalies associated with the surface of the moon.

Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR):
MiniSAR comes from the Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University and Naval Air Warfare Centre, all the way from the US through NASA. This payload aims to detect water ice in the permanently shadowed regions on the lunar poles up to a depth of a few meters. This radar mapper would allow viewing of all permanently shadowed areas on the moon, regardless of whether sunlight is available or whether the angle is unsatisfactory.

Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3):
M3 comes aboard the mission from Brown University and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US through NASA. The spectrometer will assess and map lunar mineral resources at high spatial and spectral resolution to support planning for future, targeted missions, and will also aid in the characterisation and mapping of lunar materials in context of moon's early geological evolution.

Exploring the moon's potential for energy
Speaking to the media, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre's director Dr K Radhakrishnan and the director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, MC Dathan, said India's pioneering lunar mission, four decades subsequent to man's conquest of the moon, will be important for a number of reasons.

One of the foremost reasons, says Radhakrishnan, is the fact that the moon could be a major source of energy for the human race in times to come. Mankind, according to him, is already grappling with questions about alternative energy sources to fulfill the burgeoning demand for energy as a replacement for fast depleting fossil fuel reserves on earth.

Earlier lunar missions had detected the presence of helium in the moon's surface, and there could be future explorations that would work on getting it to earth to harness its properties and process it.

A second reason is that the moon is an intermediary planet that would be a staging area for future explorations. It could also serve as a scientific and technological exercise in man's dream of reaching out to other planets such as Mars.

Chandrayaan-1 is also the first step towards a manned mission to the moon. India plans to send an astronaut into space by 2014, and a manned mission to the moon by 2020.

Waste of money? No way!
The Times reported that critics of India's space programme have billed Chandrayaan-1 as a "waste of money" in a country where 800 million of a total population of 1.1 billion live on less than $2 a day. However, advocates for the programme counter that India has a revenue generating commercial satellite launch operation, and the scientific benefits of the space programme have played a key role in the development of the country's IT industry.

Further, they cite India's seven earth-observation satellites as the largest of its kind globally, even as India's space programme trails its large neighbour's, China. China is the third nation, after the US and the former Soviet Union, to put a man into space aboard its own launch vehicle. Chinese leaders have hailed the space walk by a Chinese 'taikonaut' that was conducted on 27 September as a great victory, even though it came decades after those conducted by the former USSR and the US.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's views
In a recent interview with the Times of India, former president of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam shared his excitement about the lunar mission, visualising it as a mission to boost space research, and motivating more budding scientists to take up careers in the field.

He said that India has the capability to stand tall in the space exploration domain, with the "capability to build any type of launch vehicle, any type of spacecraft and launch it not only in earth's orbit, but also in the lunar orbit."

Kalam said that the lunar mission would signal India's readiness to be a partner in international space missions, enabling the evolution of the Earth-Moon-Mars complex, which in turn would lead to inter-planetary economic activity and the evolution of an alternative habitat.

Explaining the importance of the lunar mission, Kalam said that as civilisation spreads through the solar system, the moon would provide the main link between the Earth and its "scattered children", becoming a telecommunications hub for inter-planetary communications.

Chandrayaan-2: Planned Sequel
The Moon Impact Probe (MIP), the 29-kilogram payload, would be the first object left behind by India on another celestial body, and is painted with the colours of the Indian national flag. Built by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, the MIP is actually a technological forerunner to India's Chandrayaan-2 mission that will aim to deploy a Russian-built lander or a rover on the Moon.

ISRO signed up with Russian federal space agency Roskosmos last November for a joint lunar mission for Chandrayaan-2. As part of the agreement, ISRO will build the mother-spacecraft, while Roskosmos will build the lander/rover that will detach from Chandrayaan-2 and land on the moon.

The Chandrayaan-2 rover will move around on the lunar surface, analysing soil samples and sending data about its chemical analysis to Earth. Chandrayaan-2 would head for the moon sometime around 2011-12 aboard an Indian Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

About the spacecraft

2008-10-16T11:24:00.001-07:00

The Spacecraft for the lunar mission is cuboid in shape of approximately 1.50 m side. It weighs 1304 kg at launch and 590 kg at lunar orbit and accommodates eleven science payloads.

It is a 3-axis stabilized spacecraft using two star sensors, gyros and four reaction wheels.

The power generation would be through a canted single-sided solar array to provide required power during all phases of the mission. This deployable solar array consisting of a single panel generates 700W of peak power. Solar array along with yoke would be stowed on the south deck of the spacecraft in the launch phase. During eclipse spacecraft will be powered by Lithium ion (Li-Ion) batteries.

After deployment the solar panel plane is canted by 30 to the spacecraft pitch axis.

The spacecraft employs a X-band, 0.7m diameter parabolic antenna for payload data transmission. The antenna employs a dual gimbal mechanism to track the earth station when the spacecraft is in lunar orbit.

The spacecraft uses a bipropellant integrated propulsion system to reach lunar orbit as well as orbit and attitude maintenance while orbiting the moon.

The propulsion system carries required propellant for a mission life of 2 years, with adequate margin. The Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TTC) communication is in S-band frequency. The scientific payload data transmission is in X-band frequency.

The spacecraft has three Solid State Recorders (SSRs) on board to record data from various payloads.

SSR-1 will store science payload data and has capability of storing 32Gb data.

SSR-2 will store science payload data along with spacecraft attitude information (gyro and star sensor), satellite house keeping and other auxiliary data. The storing capacity of SSR-2 is 8Gb.

M3 (Moon Mineralogy Mapper) payload has an independent SSR with 10Gb capacity.

The launch vehicle

2008-10-16T11:22:00.001-07:00

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) built its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the early 90s.

The 45 m tall PSLV with a lift-off mass of 295 tonne, had its maiden success on October 15, 1994 when it launched India's IRS-P2 remote sensing satellite into a Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) of 820 km.

Between 1996 and 2005, it has launched six more Indian Remote Sensing satellites as well as HAMSAT, a micro satellite built by ISRO for amateur radio communications into polar SSOs, one Indian meteorological satellite into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

During this period, PSLV has also launched four satellites from abroad (TUBSAT and DLR-Bird from Germany, Proba from Belgium and KITSAT from Republic of Korea) as piggyback payloads into polar SSOs.

Thus, PSLV has emerged as ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle and proved its reliability and versatility by scoring eight consecutive successes between 1994-2005 periods in launching multiple payloads to both SSO as well as GTO.

Chandrayaan to look for water on moon

2008-10-16T11:21:00.001-07:00

Is there water on the moon? India's lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1, will try to find out by peeking into the moon's dark corners and sending an American probe to dig there.

When Chandrayaan heads for the moon October 22, it will carry on board a 6.5-kg mini synthetic aperture radar (MiniSAR) developed by the Johns Hopkins University applied physics laboratory and the Naval Air Warfare Centre.

It will look for water-ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles by digging a few metres into the surface.

Although lunar samples brought back by previous missions show the moon to be pretty dry, recent discoveries suggest water-ice may exist in its polar regions.

The lunar poles contain areas that are permanently dark, creating cold traps or zones that, because the sun never shines on them, may be as cold as 50-70 Kelvin (about minus 223 to minus 203 Celsius).

"Cometary debris and meteorites containing water-bearing minerals constantly bombard moon," M. Annadurai, the mission's project director said.

"Though most of this water is lost to space, if a water molecule finds its way into a cold trap, it should remain as no physical process is known till date that can remove it. Over geological time, significant quantities of water could accumulate."

An Indian-made device, a high energy x-ray spectrometer (HEX), will explore the moon's polar regions (north-south) that could be covered by thick water-ice deposits.

Chandrayaan Mission: The Other Side

2008-10-16T10:53:00.001-07:00

With the country gearing up for the Chandrayaan mission, there is one ISRO official who wishes he has no work to do on the launch date. While all other in his office are planning meticulously for the D-day, S Krishnamurthy can only pray their planning goes right and the PSLV stays on track when it starts its 3,00,000 km journey on October 22.

S. Krishnamurthy happens to hold the sonically unexciting position of "General Manager, Safety". Now, being a General Manger at any other office would be mundane stuff. Signing papers and meetings. However, we're talking about the ISRO here and trust me, it's not just another "run of the mill" office.

Mr. Krishnamurthy and his team, located at a distance from the actual launch site will be monitoring the path of the PSLV once it starts its journey and their job is to keep a watch on it. He is the only official in the entire ISRO to have the right to destroy the rocket in case the launch fails or if the rocket veers off its intended path, thereby endangering lives and property.

With as many as four radars keeping track of the PSLV with minute details about the state of the rocket once it is up, Krishnamurthy will be amongst the first to notice if anything is about to go awry. In fact, his team will continuously calculate the Instantaneous Impact Point (IIP), which happens to be the area where the debris will eventually fall in case of something going terribly wrong.

It is a job many dread to do. It was in July 2006 when Krishnamurthy last pressed the "destroy" button. The GSLV F02 was launched and within seconds, it veered from the path and it had to be destroyed in mid air after 45 seconds into the flight. The 414 tonne rocket was then seen disintegrating in mid air with huge debris falling in to the Bay of Bengal.

Even this time, extreme precautions have been taken to deal with any emergencies. Additionally, aircraft have been told to keep a safe distance from the Sriharikota skies on the day of launch.

While it is disturbing to read news about a possible failure, it is important to remember that ISRO is ready for any eventuality. And yes, rocket launches are complex feats of engineering with India possessing a very good safety record. Kudos to the ISRO team who have been behind this and to the people who will ensure the safety of others in case something goes wrong. Let us all hope everything goes as planned and the country successfully completes its first lunar mission in style!

Indian spacecraft will try to unravel moon's origins

2008-10-16T09:17:00.001-07:00

India's lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1, will try to unravel the moon's origins as it scouts for minerals and water there, according to project director M. Annadurai.

When Chandrayaan is launched Oct 22 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, about 80 km from Chennai, it will boost international space cooperation by carrying 11 scientific devices, six of them from European and American organisations, to study the earth's nearest celestial neighbour while it orbits 100 km above the moon.

One of the lunar orbiter's key missions will be to map the moon. "During the two-year expedition, the 11 devices will be used to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of the moon," Annadurai told IANS. The maps will have a high resolution of 5 to 10 metres, he added.

Annadurai said the chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface will show where elements such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron and titanium are to be found.

"Simultaneous photo, geological and chemical mapping will enable indentification of the different geological units, which will test the early evolutionary history of the moon," he said. They will also help determine the nature of the lunar crust, he said.

The lunar probe will also look for water-ice in the permanently dark polar regions of the moon which may be as cold as 50 to 70 degrees Kelvin (about minus 223 to minus 203 degrees Centigrade) , he said.

These are the European Space Agency devices or payloads that will fly on the Chandrayaan:

-- Imaging x-ray spectrometer (C1XS), developed by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Britain with the ISRO satellite centre, will map the lunar surface, using x-ray fluorescence technique for measuring the elements. It will also observe the moon during the rising phase of the solar cycle when x-ray signals are expected to be enhanced.

-- Sub-kiloelectronvolt (keV) atom reflecting analyser (SARA), built jointly by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics and the Space Physics Laboratory of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VKSC) at Thiruvananthapuram, will study the composition of the moon, the way its surface reacts to solar wind, how its materials change and the magnetic anomalies.

The following are the two US instruments packages:

--The 6.5-kg mini synthetic aperture radar (MiniSAR), developed by the Johns Hopkins University applied physics laboratory and the naval air warfare centre, will detect water-ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles by digging a few metres into the surface.

-- Moon mineralogy mapper (M3), an imaging spectrometer built by Brown University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA, will assess and map lunar mineral resources at high spatial and spectral resolution for future targeted missions.

"The seven kg M3 will also help in characterising and mapping lunar minerals for knowing the moon's early geological evolution," Annadurai said. "Its compositional maps will improve our understanding of the early evolution of a differentiated planetary body and provide a high-resolution assessment of lunar resources."

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences' radiation dose monitor (RADOM) will characterise the radiation environment in a region of space near the moon. Its data will be used to evaluate the radiation environment and radiation shielding requirements on future manned moon missions.

The five Indian payloads are:

--The seven-kg terrain mapping camera (TMC) will map moon's topography and prepare the three-dimensional atlas.

--The four-kg hyper spectral imager (HySI) will gather spectroscopic data for mapping minerals.

--The 10-kg lunar laser ranging instrument (LLRI) will provide data for determining the height of lunar surface features and moon's gravity field.

-- The 16-kg high energy x-ray spectrometer (HEX) will explore the moon's polar regions (north-south) that may be covered by thick water-ice deposits.

-- The 29-kg moon impact probe (MIP) that will descend on to the lunar surface in about 20 minutes from an altitude of 100 km on a specific location at a pre-determined time to explore the moon from a close range.

Aber scientist helps Moon mission

2008-10-16T09:16:00.001-07:00

A scientist involved in India's first unmanned mission to the Moon hopes it will help unlock the mystery of how it was formed.

Professor Manuel Grande of Aberystwyth University will attend the launch of the Chandrayaan-1 craft on Wednesday.

Prof Grande is one of a number of scientists working on a camera which will map the surface of the Moon.

This will help experts understand its origins, its evolution and the mineral resources that exist there.

Weather conditions permitting, India's spacecraft will be launched next week, and over the next two years it will survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and its landscape.

Prof Grande, head of the solar systems physics group at Aberystwyth University, is the principal investigator on the sophisticated X-ray camera C1XS, which forms the UK contribution to the mission.
This will enable us to pin down the mysteries which remain about the origin of the Earth-Moon system
Professor Manuel Grande

He was also involved in the European Space Agency's exploratory Smart 1 lunar mission, which crashed into the Moon's surface in 2006.

"The C1XS instrument will provide us with a new picture of what the Moon is made of not just here and there, but over the whole surface of our eighth continent," said Prof Grande.

Impact probe

Prof Grande is leading a two-day team meeting of key scientists working on C1XS at Aberystwyth University on Thursday and Friday.

Dr Ian Crawford from the University of London's Birkbeck College, who chairs the C1XS science team, said: "There is still a lot we don't know about the Moon.

"Accurate maps of the surface composition will help us unravel its internal structure and geological history.

" We will learn more about what happened on the Moon since it formed and how and when it cooled. By peering into its craters, we may even be able to see below its crust to the material underneath."

Chandrayaan-1 will also drop a small impact probe on to the lunar surface to test its properties.

How Chandrayaan-1 will be put in the moon’s sphere of influence

2008-10-15T18:47:00.001-07:00

All set: The fully assembled PSLV-C11, which will launch Chandrayaan-1 on October 22.

The enhanced capabilities of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and accurate modelling of the forces that act on the Chandrayaan-1 satellite in orbit make India’s mission to Moon possible next week. The PSLV will put the satellite into an elliptical orbit under the influence of earth’s gravity.

The inbuilt rockets of the satellite will then push it to the moon’s sphere of influence.
Final destination

The final destination is a circular Lunar orbit 100 kilometres above the surface of the Moon. The first challenge for the engineers of ISRO will be to put the satellite into the transfer orbit around the earth. The PSLV has been modified to lift the 1,304 tonne satellite and attain a highly elliptical orbit.

The nearest point (perigee) of this orbit will be about 250 kilometres and the farthest point (apogee) will be about 22,860 km away from earth. The launch vehicle will have to achieve a velocity of about 26,000 km an hour to place the satellite into the transfer orbit. This, it will do in just over 18 minutes, or 1,096 seconds, to be exact. The capacity of the strap-on-booster motors of PSLV has been increased from nine to 12 tonnes of solid propellant to achieve that. (Because of the increased length of the strap-ons, they are referred to with the suffix XL.)

The first stage of the vehicle together with its six strap-on boosters carries 320 tonnes of propellants. The third stage also uses solid propellant while the second and fourth stages use liquid propellants. Once the launch Vehicle puts the satellite into orbit, the inbuilt thrusters are used to move it into an extended transfer orbit.

Then a trajectory to transfer the satellite into the moon’s gravitational sphere is achieved through multiple manoeuvres to extend the apogee beyond 3.8 lakh kilometres.

The calculation of the gravitational and other forces acting on the satellite at this and earlier stages is crucial in guiding the satellite into the right orbits.

The Indian Space Research has prepared models for this, and the calculations have been validated in reference to models used by other space agencies.
The manoeuvre

The manoeuvre to insert the satellite into Lunar orbit will be done when the moon is at its nearest position to earth. The Indian Space Research Organisation is hoping to use a window available early in November.

For this, the launching is to be done between October 22 and 28. Before the moon is in position, a trial will be done by extending the apogee beyond the position where the moon would be at the time of insertion.

When the satellite falls into the Lunar orbit, it will be about 500 km (peri-seline) from surface of the Moon on an elliptical orbit that will extend to 5000 km (apo-seline). The orbit will then be reduced to 100 km in steps by slowing down the satellite.

Looking beyond Chandrayaan-I

2008-10-15T10:33:00.001-07:00

The country’s first Moon mission Chandrayaan-1 that is scheduled to take off on October 22 will not mark the end of India’s interplanetary missions.

The much-awaited lunar odyssey will, in fact, kick off a slew of ambitious space programmes. At various ISRO establishments, scientists and engineers are working on space projects that will be a follow-up to Chandrayaan-1.

As a first step, ISRO and Russia’s Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos ) had, on November 14, 2007, agreed to team up on joint lunar research and exploration as part of Chandrayaan-2 mission.

This agreement, approved by the Union Cabinet a few days ago, involves an orbiting spacecraft and a rover that will land on the Moon. Chandrayaan-2, which is expected to lift off from Sriharikota some time between 2010 and 2012, will have a budget of Rs 425 crore.

The amount is slightly more than the current mission which is costing India Rs 386 crore. The spacecraft will be designed and developed by ISRO, while the rover will be a Russian product.

The rover will weigh between 30 and 100 kg, depending on the kind of landing - a hard or soft one - it will execute on the lunar surface . It will have a one-month life span and operate predominantly on solar power.

Keeping in mind the additional payloads in the spacecraft that could increase the launch weight, the rocket for the second mission will be the three-stage Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

The current version of the rocket can carry payloads of up to two tonnes while the new version - GSLV Mk3 - can fly with payloads weighing four tonnes. The data from the rover will be transmitted to the orbiting spacecraft, which, in turn, will send it to the ground station at Byalalu near Bangalore.

As in the case of Chandrayaan-1, the data from its successor will also be sent to various scientific bodies - both in India and abroad - for analysis. Though Chandrayaan-2 will essentially be a joint Indo-Russian venture, the spacecraft may include instruments from other countries too.

For instance, NASA has shown interest in sending its instruments to the Moon through Chandrayaan-2 but details have yet to be worked out. The inclusion of a Russian rover in the second mission did cause some heartburn in India, especially among IIT-Kanpur students.

The institute had designed a rover and it was hoping that it would be a part of Chandrayaan-2. But following PM Manmohan Singh’s visit to Russia in November 2007, the decision swung in favour of the Russian rover.

After Chandrayaan-2 , the question being asked is whether there will be Chandrayaan-3 . According to ISRO officials, if the government agrees to have a third moon mission, it could be what is known as a sample return flight - samples from the Moon will be flown back to earth for analysis.

“But this is still at a planning stage and no decision has yet been taken,” said an ISRO official. After Chandrayaan-2, ISRO is planning a manned mission to the low Earth orbit at an altitude of 2,000 km.

The space programme could pave the way for a manned mission to the Moon in 2020.

‘India committed to peaceful use of outer space’

2008-10-15T10:31:00.001-07:00

India favours peaceful uses of outer space for the common good of mankind, a member of the Indian delegation to the UN General Assembly session here has said, citing initiatives such as the country’s first unmanned mission to the moon to be launched next week.Tariq Anwar, MP, detailed the advances made by India’s space programme such as the impending launch of lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, and providing remote sensing data and assessment support to the countries affected by natural disasters.

“Indian Remote Sensing imagery and support services were made available for post-disaster relief operations after the major cyclone and earthquake that recently struck Myanmar and China respectively,” Anwar said while participating in the debate on agenda item “International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space” of the 63rd UN General Assembly Tuesday.

Among space applications in India, Anwar cited 33,000 EDUSAT classrooms that provide support to quality education across the country and the expansion of telemedicine network to make expert medical consultancy in cities available to patients in remote areas - both through satellite linkages.

The India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) also takes a special interest in capacity building and services for assisting developing countries in the application of space technology, Anwar said.

The Centre for Space Science and Technology Education for Asia and Pacific Region, operating from India, has so far conducted 26 postgraduate programmes and 19 short-term courses and workshops benefiting nearly 750 scholars from almost 50 countries, he pointed out.

Vishvjit P. Singh, another member of the Indian delegation to the UN, participating in a debate on “The Rule of Law at the National and International Level”, said the conventional view favours a “top down” approach, in which building the rule of law is primarily about crafting the right laws and institutional arrangements, which can be informed by international best practices.

However, he said, an alternative is the bottom-up approach, which involves providing technical assistance to different players in a transition country’s legal and political community-such as training lawyers and judges that helps build both a culture of respect for the law and a constituency that will demand legal reforms from their government.

Suggesting that the two strategies are not mutually exclusive, Singh agreed with the UN Secretary General’s report to identify partnerships with national rule of law stakeholders as a key that can provide insights on dynamics underlying important concepts and suggest innovations to improve the likelihood of success of a programme.

“We see promotion of the rule of law as an essential tool for ensuring sustainable development and peaceful coexistence and cooperation among States,” Singh said.

Chandrayaan Videos

2008-10-15T10:29:00.001-07:00

This video explain why This is an historical Mission. Moon certainly is the place next start your planetary exploration from, India's moon mission is a long cherished dream two thousand years old

India's preposterous priorities

2008-10-15T08:01:00.001-07:00

There is apparently great excitement among the scientists involved in India's first unmanned mission to the moon which is due to blast off in less than two weeks from Satish Dhawan Space Centre near the southern city of Madras.

Weather and the gods permitting, the launch of Chandrayaan-I is due to go ahead on 22 October and more than 1,000 scientists are involved in the effort to push forward India's space programme to the next stage.

While not wanting to pour cold water on the affair for the sake of it, I can't help wondering what on earth the point of all this is. In a country where perhaps half of young children suffer from malnutrition, where education in the rural areas is as basic as can be and where access to healthcare for the poor remains at best a very hit or miss affair, I have to conclude that the £47m the project is costing might be better spent on other things.

No-one doubts India is changing and who would not wish to celebrate as the country slowly throws off the shackles of famine and isolation. But for all the talk of a new India, one cannot ignore the reality that more than 800m of the population of 1.1bn live on around one pound a day. For hundreds of millions of people, wretched poverty is the only life they know and are ever likely to know.

It's been reported that defenders of the mission say it will actually make money because it is also carrying equipment for NASA and the European Space Agency. But it seems equally clear that India's motivation is much more about trying to catch up with China, which has been pushing ahead with its space programme and which last month carried out its first space walk.

I am not immune to the spectacle and wonder of such events but in terms of advancing science I am at a loss to see what benefits India's unmanned moon mission will bring. (In much the same way, the US's space science programme that requires the use of the outdated Shuttles to peform experiments that can be done just as easily on earth, also strikes me as a waste of time and resources.) If anyone can tell me what good this event will do India or the rest of humanity, I'd be glad to know.

Payload bearing Tricolour will land on Moon

2008-10-15T07:58:00.001-07:00

On November 10 or 11, the national flag will be hoisted on the Moon.

When the Moon Impact Probe (MIP), bearing the Tricolour, ej
ects from the
Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and crashlands on the lunar surface, it will mark India’s leap into the club of countries aiming for the Moon.

“A small Indian flag (4 inches by six inches) has been painted on the moon impact probe. This is a matter of pride and honour, and when the MIP lands on the Moon, it will signal India’s entry into one of the intriguing aspects of the universe,’’ ISRO officials told TOI.

The 29-kg MIP, which was not part of the project initially, was inducted into the spacecraft at the insistence of former President A P J Abdul Kalam. The payload developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram will help identify future landing sites on the Moon and will also aid scientific exploration of the lunar surface.

When the MIP crash-lands on the Moon, it will kick up dust. The mass spectrometer on the payload will gather scientific details from the dust and send them back to the earth. The MIP is one of the 11 payloads on Chandrayaan-I and one of the five instruments indigenously designed and developed in India.

On October 22, the PSLVC 11, also called PSLV-XL because of the increased weight of the six strap-on motors, will soar into the sky from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota . It will travel to the vicinity of the Moon by following the lunar transfer trajectory (LTT).

When the spacecraft reaches the vicinity of the Moon, it will be slowed down through a process to enable the gravity of the Moon to capture it into its elliptical orbit.

When the orbital height of Chandrayaan-I is lowered to its intended 100-km height from the lunar surface , the MIP will be ejected from Chandrayaan-I at the earliest on to the lunar surface in a chosen area. “About 20 days from the date of launch, Chandrayaan-I will be in the required Moon orbit. So we are looking at November 8, around noon,’’ SSDC director M C Dathan said.

The spacecraft, which is being readied at another building , will be moved to the vehicle building by October 14, following which another four days of work will be carried out to couple Chandrayaan-1 with the launch vehicle. On October 18, the vehicle with the payloads will be moved to the launch pad.

Dathan allayed fears of the launch not taking place on October 22 because of rains. “Only if a cyclone occurs will there be a problem. Otherwise, even with rains, the launch will take place,’’ he said.

India's moon spacecraft positioned atop rocket

2008-10-15T07:56:00.001-07:00

A week before launch, India's maiden lunar mission has progressed one step further, with the Chandrayaan spacecraft that will orbit the moon installed atop the rocket ferrying it.

"The spacecraft was fitted to the rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C11 (PSLV C11) Tuesday night. Today (Wednesday) the heat shield will be fitted to make the rocket ready for moving to the launch pad," M. Annadurai, project director, Chandrayaan told IANS from the launch site Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, around 80 km from here.

The rocket is scheduled to be moved to the launch pad Saturday. Before that, all the systems are being tested over a four-day period.

Once the fully loaded rocket is moved to the launch pad at snail's pace on a mobile platform, the systems will be again tested for four days more.

The 52-hour countdown for the launch will begin at 4 a.m. Monday. The launch to deliver the Chandrayaan spacecraft into orbit is scheduled at 6.20 a.m. next Wednesday, Oct 22.

Chandrayaan-1 shifted to VAB

2008-10-14T20:00:00.001-07:00

Hectic activity was under way at ISRO’s launch centre in Sriharikota, 100 km north of here on Tuesday, with the integration of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft with the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) proceeding smoothly.

The spacecraft was moved to the 83-metre tall Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) of the second launch pad complex on the midnight of October 13/14. It is in the VAB that the PSLV-C11 rocket stands majestically on a massive launch pedestal.

M. Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan-1, said from Sriharikota, “The spacecraft is being assembled on top of the vehicle now. Initial tests are going on.” The tests involved checking the radio frequency and computer connectivity to the ground.

“We are testing them so that we can get ready for the countdown. If the weather permits, the launch will take place on October 22. There are no other issues. Technically, we are in good shape. The whole team is in an upbeat mood,” Mr. Annadurai added.

The 52-hour final countdown starts from 4.00 a.m. on October 20.

Chandrayaan-1 is India’s first mission to the moon. The spacecraft will take remote-sensing images of the moon, which will help in locating minerals and chemicals on the lunar soil. It will help in confirming the presence of water in the South Pole of the moon.

Indian Deep Space Network tracks the Koguya and Rosseta space missions news

2008-10-14T12:09:00.001-07:00

As preparation for its own lunar mission, Chandrayaan-I, the Indian Space Reserach Organisation's communications infrastructure, the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN), set up to transmit and receive signals from Chandrayaan 1, successfully tracked the Japanese lunar mission Selene (Koguya) last week. Launched in 2007 this satellite is currently in orbit around the moon.

According to ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command (ISTRAC) officials they were able to uplink with Koguya with the help of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). They said IDSN established contact with the spacecraft and tracked it successfully.

This operation has provided the IDSN setup ample confidence that it will be able to track the Chandrayaan-I with ease.

In addition, starting this week, the IDSN'S 32-metre antenna at Byalalu will be put into calibration and test mode with another deep space probe of the European Space Agency (ESA) called Rosetta.

This probe, launched in 2004, aims to land on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. Establishing a link with Rosetta would establish the IDSN's capabilities as a deep space tracking system.

The IDSN
Space missions that travel beyond a distance of 100,000 km from the earth are usually termed deep space missions. For ISRO, a deep space mission such as Chandrayaan will be in a different league altogether from the kind of space missions it has handled so far. Apart from development of launch vehicles these have included Low Earth Orbit (LEO) remote sensing (Indian Remote Sensing) system of satellites and geostationary communication INSAT satellites.

The IDSN set up at Byalalu, a village 40 km from Bangalore, will provide constant communication link to Chandrayaan-I from the ground. It will be used for tracking, orbit control and housekeeping operations of India's lunar mission for its entire duration of two years.

32 m diameter antenna in its final stages of fabrication for IDSN

The IDSN infrastructure itself comprises a 32-metre antenna designed and built indigenously along with an 18-metre antenna built by a German company to ISRO's specifications.

The IDSN will begin to track Chandrayaan 17 minutes after its launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Launch Centre at Sriharikota, when the satellite would have separated from the launch vehicle.

Apart from the Koguya and the Rosseta the IDSN is also tracking radio stars, such as Cygnus, Cassiopeia (supernova remnant stars) as well as the sun and the moon which are all radio sources. ISTRAC sources said all these operations had already provided them with ample experience and they now knew how to maximise their signals.

India plans new manned rocket launch pad

2008-10-14T12:08:00.001-07:00

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to build a third launch pad at its Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota island on India's eastern coast for its proposed 2015 manned flight.

The SDSC's two launch pads already in operation have facilities for solid propellant processing, motor static testing, launch vehicle integration and launch and range operations, including telemetry, tracking and the command network.

The manned missions launch pad will differ from the others with the addition of an on-pad emergency escape system for astronauts. With two or three astronauts travelling to a 400km (248 miles) orbit on a three-stage ISRO Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, the Rp100 billion ($2 billion) programme is awaiting approval by the Indian government.

"To launch the mission in 2015...there is a good clarity on the roadmap such as technologies required [and] the estimated Rp100 billion for the mission and the agencies that would be participating," says ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair.

The new UK government minister responsible for space, Lord Drayson, has made positive comments about the possibility of Great Britain joining other nations' human spaceflight endeavours. Appointed this month, he has said a UK astronaut decision will be made in six months time.

David Williams, the government's director of its space activities co-ordinating body, the British National Space Centre, had said that "advice to the minister" would be provided before the end of this year. That advice comes in the form of a report setting out the options.

Chandrayaan-1: Objectives of India's Moon Mission

2008-10-14T12:06:00.001-07:00

The Indian Space Research Organisation, which has programmed Chandrayaan-1, has manifold ideas behind the mission. The main mission objectives are:

1. to realise the goal of harnessing the science payloads, lunar craft and
the launch vehicle with suitable ground support systems including deep space network station.

2. to realise the integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar
polar orbit of about 100 km, in-orbit operation of experiments, communication/ telecommand, telemetry data reception, quick look data and archival for scientific utilisation by identified group of scientists.

Chandrayaan-1 shifted to VAB

2008-10-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

The 52-hour final countdown starts from 4.00 a.m. on October 20.

Chandrayaan aimed at exploring Moon's energy potential

2008-10-13T07:52:00.001-07:00

India's first unmanned Moon mission Chandrayaan-I will be taking off at a time when there is renewed interest in the heavenly body the world over, especially in its potential to become a future source of energy.
"We sometimes face the question why India is attaching so much importance to this mission, nearly 40 years after man first landed on the Moon.

"The reality is that there is now a renewed interest in the Moon for a variety of reasons," Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) Dr K Radhakrishnan and his counterpart in the Satish Dhawan Space Centre M C Dathan told a team of visiting journalists here.

For one thing, the Moon could be a major source of energy for human beings, grappling with the grim question of how to overcome the critical situation caused by fast depleting fossil fuel reserves on Earth.

Earlier Moon missions had detected the presence of Helium in the celestial body's surface. In future there could be explorations to bringing it (to Earth), harness and process it, they said.

Secondly, the Moon, the only natural satellite of Earth, is an intermediary planet. Explorations there could serve as a scientific and technological exercise in man's dream of reaching to other planets like Mars.

The new path to space: India and China enter the game

2008-10-13T07:46:00.001-07:00

Imagine for a moment that the Cold War never happened. Suppose that Joseph Stalin had suffered an aneurism a week after the end of World War 2 and that his successors, although not exactly friendly toward the West, chose a far less antagonistic relationship. No ICBMs, no technological competition, no Space Race.

Would humans be in orbit right now? Would any country have launched anybody into space considering the immense costs and the lack of a compelling political rationale?

This is the kind of counterfactual argument that makes historians sputter. It has too many variables and cannot really tell you much. But we do know that the Cold War caused the United States and the Soviet Union to rush to outdo each other in spaceflight, forcing each to launch faster and seek to produce “firsts” in the Space Race. Without the Cold War, human spaceflight would have developed along a more normal trajectory.

But what is “normal” anyway? Is there even a way to measure it? Fortunately, China’s entry into human spaceflight and India’s newly stated desire to have a human spaceflight program allows us to consider this subject from a slightly different perspective. In the past couple of weeks a number of public talks by Indian and Chinese space officials as well as American observers of the Chinese space program have shed some new light on this issue.
India in space

On October 6, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) sponsored a panel discussion with the National Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) at AAAS headquarters in Washington, DC. NIAS is an Indian think tank based in Bangalore, and the discussion consisted of three presentations on the Indian space program, the future of the Indian nuclear program, and the need for professional accreditation of scientists. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion including the three presenters and three other NIAS representatives.China’s entry into human spaceflight and India’s newly stated desire to have a human spaceflight program allows us to consider the subject of human spaceflight from a slightly different perspective.

The first speaker was Krishnaswami Kasturirangan, the director of NIAS and a member of the Indian Parliament. Kasturirangan was chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for nine years and Secretary to the government of India in the Department of Space. He earlier served as the director of the ISRO Satellite Centre where he oversaw activities related to the development of new generation spacecraft such as INSAT-2 and the Indian Remote Sensing Satellites IRS-1A and 1B as well as scientific satellites.

Kasturirangan gave a fast-paced overview of the Indian space program. The program began in the 1960s—what he dubbed the “initiation phase”—and continued in the 1970s, or “experimental phase.” The 1980s were when India finally entered its “operational phase” where its satellites were capable of serving the social priorities of the country. As a poor country, India could not treat spaceflight as a luxury—the satellites it developed were directly tied to the social needs of the Indian people. Kasturirangan noted that the United States assisted India in this regards: in the early 1970s the United States sponsored a demonstration program using an American geostationary satellite to provide telemedicine resources to rural doctors. (See “India and the US: partners or rivals in space?”, The Space Review, February 11, 2008)

Telemedicine is particularly important in India, Kasturirangan explained, because 98% of the people from rural areas who become doctors leave those areas, resulting in a small number of doctors with the required training to serve a large number of people. Telemedicine can therefore bring some of the medical resources of India’s thriving urban areas to remote villages. Also important is remote sensing for agricultural assessment. According to Kasturirangan, India can now predict with 90% accuracy the national crop output one month before harvest. For a country that in its past frequently faced starvation and malnutrition, this is a vital resource. He noted that in 1978 Indian remote sensing satellites could achieve one kilometer resolution; today they can achieve one meter resolution.

Now that India has not only developed significant space capabilities but also experienced substantial economic growth, the Indian space program has entered into what Kasturirangan describes as its “expansion phase.” India can afford the luxuries of space science and possibly even human spaceflight. The country’s first lunar spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled for launch later this month. The government has also created the Antrix Corporation to market Indian space capabilities around the world. The country’s next goals are development of a heavy launch vehicle, lunar exploratory missions, a two-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicle, human spaceflight, and further international cooperation.

During the panel discussion, several members of the audience asked Kasturirangan and two of his colleagues questions about the Indian space program. His colleagues included S. Chandrashekar, a professor of corporate strategy at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, as well as a 20-year veteran of ISRO. Chandrashekar’s recent work at NIAS includes an assessment of Pakistani and Chinese ballistic missile capabilities. In response to a question about Pakistan’s missiles he said that it is clear that they are not entirely based upon Chinese technology and that Pakistan clearly has significant ballistic missile design expertise of its own. Chandrashekar also said that his assessment of China’s missiles disagrees with that of the United States. For instance, he said that while the Americans have concluded that the Chinese DF-5 ICBM is a two-stage missile, his group has concluded that it is actually a three-stage missile. His research also disagrees with the American assessment of China’s newer DF-31 ICBM.

Most of the space questions were directed at Kasturirangan, who was asked about India’s plans for human spaceflight. Kasturirangan explained that right now India’s government has not officially approved a human spaceflight program. Although he did not say so, other sources have indicated that India will pursue a two-person capsule. ISRO is currently studying technology options and questions and he rattled off a long list, including life support, reentry, tracking and human-rating a launch vehicle, clearly indicating that he was personally familiar with the studies. Only after the Indian space agency has answered these questions and defined the kind of vehicle they want to build, its costs, and the timeframe for the first human space launch, will ISRO officials take those plans to the Indian Parliament for formal approval. Simply put, India’s human space program has not yet been fully defined or approved.

Kasturirangan said that ISRO has not yet made a decision concerning launch vehicles, but is considering a 2.5-stage rocket for carrying a manned spacecraft into orbit. ISRO is studying two possibilities, the current Geostationary Launch Vehicle (or GSLV), which has flown successfully several times, or the planned GSLV Mark 3, which is scheduled for first launch in 2010. The Mark 3 will be more capable, but as of yet it is only a paper vehicle and therefore higher risk.India’s human space program has not yet been fully defined or approved.

When asked about India’s goals in space science beyond the Chandrayaan lunar mission, Kasturirangan listed several objectives: developing chemical analysis capabilities for future lunar landers, sample return from the Moon, international cooperation on a robotic Mars mission, and the Astrosat observatory, which is to be capable of observations from the ultraviolet to high energy X-ray portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Although he is not currently involved in decision making concerning the Indian space program, it was apparent from the clarity and quickness of his answers not only that Kasturirangan was very familiar with the current state of Indian spaceflight plans, but that Indian space officials are putting a great deal of effort into planning their next moves in the expansion phase of Indian spaceflight.
China in space

On October 8, several American space experts spoke at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC on China’s space program. The speakers were Dean Cheng, of the Center for Naval Analysis; Kevin Pollpeter, China Program Manager of the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis; and Scott Pace, the new director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and former NASA associate administrator for program analysis and evaluation.

The panel discussion had the rather awkward title of Pandas in Orbit. Heritage is a conservative think tank, but none of the speakers were particularly ideological, although they did not reflect viewpoints recently expressed by some other speakers (for instance, Joan Johnson-Freese and Theresa Hitchens) calling for more cooperative engagement with China.

Unfortunately, the Heritage event again reflected some of the ignorance and myths that surround China’s space program—opinions not expressed by the speakers, but by Heritage’s moderator and some members of the audience. The moderator once again repeated the mistaken claim that China plans to land a man on the Moon by 2017, a myth resulting from confusing China’s stated plans for a robotic lunar sample return mission with plans for a human lunar lander. Several of the questions posed to the speakers also repeated some of the erroneous claims made about China’s space weapons capability, including the charge that China “blinded” an American satellite with a laser, and that China is developing a “parasitic microsatellite” capability. The laser incident was exaggerated—in fact, the United States government never protested the incident to the Chinese government, and obviously did not interpret it as an attack—and the parasitic microsatellite claim has been effectively debunked. (See “Paper dragon: the Pentagon’s unreliable statements on the Chinese space program”, The Space Review, June 23, 2008)

Fortunately, whatever ignorance was reflected by the moderator and audience was counterbalanced by the informative speakers. They all emphasized the point that it is a common mistake to view China’s space developments in isolation from its other activities. China does not simply have a “space program,” the country’s leadership views space as part of its goals in many areas, including economic development, national security, and diplomacy.

Dean Cheng explained that the recent Shenzhou 7 spaceflight demonstrated what observers of the Chinese space program have realized for at least half a decade now, that the People’s Republic of China is a space power possessing the “full range of space mission capabilities.” These include the ability to produce, launch, and track satellites on its own. The country has a range of indigenously developed satellite systems including communications, meteorological, Earth-imaging and navigation satellites.

According to Cheng, the PRC sees space as promoting “zonghe guojia liliang,” or “comprehensive national security.” It improves the national economy both by raising China’s level of science and technology and generating high-tech jobs, and serves national security, both through military security and diplomacy.

It is this latter point that often gets ignored in the West. The PRC uses space as a diplomatic tool, Cheng noted, citing several recent examples including satellite sales to Venezuela and Nigeria, the sharing of satellite data, and China’s membership in the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization. Potential future efforts include offering insurance for space missions and training foreign astronauts.Space, according to Pollpeter, is a method for China to achieve “great power status.”

Of course, it is China’s January 2007 ASAT test that gained the most attention in the West. China’s view of the military value of space has evolved substantially over the past two decades. The 1991 American experience in Desert Shield/Desert Storm had a major effect upon China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), convincing the PLA leadership that future wars will involve joint forces, will be high-tech, and rely upon precision weapons. The military will rely on information for operational coordination, target location, and weapons guidance.

Cheng said that more recent wars have continued to shape China’s view of space and in recent years the PLA has begun to shift from a view of space as a source of information to a “key battleground in its own right.” He cited the example of the PLA Encyclopedia, which in 1997 downplayed the importance of space, but by 2002 rated it as a vital battleground.

In light of this evolving viewpoint of space’s importance, China’s manned spaceflight missions remind the world of the PRC’s space capabilities even if the human spaceflight program has no overt military goals.

Kevin Pollpeter focused more on the economic aspects of China’s space ascendancy, a rise which has been rapid in the past few years. He noted that since 2001 China had flown three human spaceflight missions, launched a lunar mission, conducted ASAT tests, and orbited a radar satellite, a remote sensing constellation, an ocean monitoring satellite, a communications relay satellite, and exported two satellites. China had also achieved launcher reliability at international standards and has not experienced a launch vehicle failure since 1996, possibly due to the illegal assistance of several American companies.

Space, according to Pollpeter, is a method for China to achieve “great power status.” Chinese officials believe that it is a technology driver that can propel China’s economy and facilitate innovation in pharmaceuticals and metallurgy. It can also provide other economic benefits, like increases in quality control testing and improving standards for selecting and training management personnel.

The Shenzhou human spaceflight program in particular is a driving force. Pollpeter noted that the average age of Shenzhou personnel is 36 and the average age of their Chang’e robotic lunar mission personnel is 33. Pollpeter compared this to many NASA projects where the average age is in the fifties and 25 percent of the US aerospace workforce is eligible to retire.

If China has been making great strides in spaceflight in the past decade, the United States has been either standing in place or shooting itself in both feet. Pollpeter noted that recent American national space policy and US Air Force space documents are seen by many foreign leaders as unnecessarily provocative and have contributed to a perception around the world that the United States government overemphasizes national security applications and intends to weaponize space. Pollpeter concluded by saying that China’s rise as a space power will have negative consequences for the United States. Simply increasing the American government’s space budget is not enough and solutions have to come from many areas. Although the recent success of SpaceX’s Falcon launch vehicle demonstrated that American industry can accomplish great things, the US government will have to take the lead in improving America’s space capabilities relative to China.

The final speaker was Scott Pace, who began his talk by emphasizing that he was not an expert on the Chinese space program but was very familiar with the issue of dual use technologies. Pace devoted much of his talk to China’s possible human lunar ambitions.

China has made some impressive advances in human spaceflight with relatively few flights. The United States flew five orbital missions over three and a half years before accomplishing its first space walk during Gemini 4 in June 1965. The Soviet Union accomplished the first ever space walk on its seventh manned mission in March 1965, with four years of human spaceflight experience. China took five years and did it in three missions. Pace noted that China’s 14-minute spacewalk was comparable to the first spacewalks of Russia and the United States (24 and 20 minutes respectively). But he also added that although China had gone from a one-person mission to a three-person mission slightly slower than the Soviet Union and faster than the United States, there is really no good substitute for actually doing things when it comes to spaceflight. China has undoubtedly extensively studied previous American and Soviet extravehicular activities, but there are many things you cannot learn from a book; you have to do them yourself. In addition, claims that China had copied most of its equipment from the Russians were exaggerations and the Shenzhou is approximately 95% indigenously developed and produced.Space cooperation is dependent on the broader US-China relationship, according to Pace. As long as that relationship is rocky, there will be little or no space cooperation.

Pace also offered a brief overview of NASA-Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA) discussions. In December 2004 NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe met with a CNSA delegation and discussed possible cooperation on space applications and Earth and space science. Nothing came of this meeting. In September 2006 NASA administrator Mike Griffin traveled to China where American and Chinese officials discussed regular exchanges between the two countries. Nothing really came from this meeting either and it was nearly another two years—in July 2008—when a NASA team visited CNSA and the two organizations formed two working groups on Earth and space science.

Pace said that many in the space community viewed space as a potential form of “ping-pong diplomacy” that could ultimately lead to greater cooperation between the two countries. But in his opinion, this was unrealistic. Space cooperation is dependent on the broader US-China relationship. As long as that relationship is rocky, there will be little or no space cooperation.

Pace said that although Chinese technical capabilities are becoming clearer, their strategic intent has not, and several broad questions remain unanswered: Will China develop a human lunar lander? Will China give the Long March 5 (CZ-5) heavy launch vehicle priority over continued evolution of the workhorse Long March 2 (CZ-2)? Will China focus more on robotic systems for disaster monitoring and navigation, among other missions?

If China decides to send humans to the Moon, its current most likely method will be to use the Long March 5 booster. First announced in 2001, it is projected to launch in 2014 after numerous schedule slips. Designed to launch heavy geosynchronous communications satellites, it could place 25 metric tons (55,000 pounds) into low Earth orbit or 14 metric tons (31,000 pounds) into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.

Pace mentioned that a 2008 paper titled “Research on the Technical Approach of Manned Lunar Mission” (in Chinese) was prepared by Long Lehao, of the Chinese Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, and Rong Yi, of the Beijing Institute of Space System Engineering. They identified four different approaches to the Moon, most of which require multiple launches of Long March 5 boosters. Two of the methods would require three launches.

Pace noted that Lehao is the developer of the Long March 5 and therefore inclined to underemphasize the difficulty of the task. NASA has also developed a notional concept of how China might conduct a human lunar mission and in NASA’s estimation it will require four Long March 5 launches, not three. The first launch would carry a translunar injection (TLI) stage into low Earth orbit. It would be followed by the unmanned lunar landing vehicle, which would automatically dock with the TLI stage and head to the Moon. They would be followed by another TLI stage and then a Shenzhou vehicle which would also rendezvous in low Earth orbit before heading to the Moon. In lunar orbit the Shenzhou would rendezvous with the lunar lander and two astronauts would descend to the Moon’s surface. They would later rendezvous with the Shenzhou and return to Earth. Four launches and four rendezvous events would entail a significant amount of risk, especially for a country with such limited human spaceflight experience. In its current approach to returning humans to the Moon, NASA has sought to minimize the number of launches and rendezvous events.

Moon mission rides on basketballer turned rocket scientist

2008-10-13T07:39:00.001-07:00

As a Kerala state player, George Koshy used to shoot the ball into the

basket during his college days. Today, as a rocket scientist
with the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO), the tall, 58-year-old M.Tech from IIT-Bombay is the project director for Chandrayaan-1, India's maiden unmanned moon mission, and on his broad shoulders rests the venture's success.

As things stand, on Oct 22, a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C11) rocket carrying the lunar orbiter and six other satellites will blast off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Like a basketball player without any fixed positions, Koshy joining ISRO in 1972 and was rotated in different departments - fabrication, tool design, the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) project - ISRO's first rocket - and development of the PSLV separation systems.

For Koshy, Chandrayaan will be his third major space mission.

He was mission director when ISRO launched an Israeli satellite in a stripped down version of PSLV in January and played a similar role when the space agency sent up a cluster of 10 satellites in April.

While the PSLV rocket for the previous missions and the current one are the same, Koshy terms each launch as unique, with its own set of challenges and calculations.

Speaking about the moon rocket, Koshy said: "The vehicle structure was altered to accomodate bigger strap-on motors."

Traditionally the PSLV's six strap-on motors are 10 metres in length and carry nine tonnes of solid propellant each. For the moon mission, they have been extended to 13.5 metres and will each carry 12 tonnes of fuel.

"All the six motors have been ground tested," Koshy said.

As a matter of abundant caution, the PSLV rocket has been padded up with additional thermal insulation.

Koshy said the fabrication of the 316-tonne rocket started two years ago and its integration with the lunar orbiter took another two months.

The rocket will sling into geosynchronous transfer orbit (GSO) the cuboid-shaped spacecraft.

With a lifespan of two years, the spacecraft will start orbiting the moon from Nov 8. It will also release a moon impact probe that will land on the lunar surface on Nov 14 - celebrated in India as Children's Day to mark the birthday of the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

The other notable feature of the moon rocket is that it will be the last one to be guided by ISRO's old avionics systems.

"We have developed our own processor that would start guiding our rockets from next year," Koshy said.

According to him, ISRO is working on plans to increase the thrust of the rocket's upper stage and carry more fuel in the second stage.

Koshy said ISRO is getting enquiries for the launch of 500-600 kg satellites. A new vehicle with ideal capacity would lower launch costs, he added.

As ISRO sends around four rockets up every year, one year's production was always in the pipeline, he pointed out.

Hailing from a big family of seven sisters and one brother, Koshy, the son of a Maths professor, is the only rocket scientist in his family. Even his daughter and son have stayed away from this tricky craft while his wife Rani Mary George is a principal scientist at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute at Thiruvananthapuram.

Slated to retire in 2010, the rocket scientist has no career regrets.

"If I have to start my career all over again, I will choose ISRO as my employer," he asserted.

Meanwhile, the basketball fraternity can be proud that one amongst them is getting India on to the moon!

India’s great leap over the moon

2008-10-12T18:11:00.001-07:00

The country is about to begin its campaign to conquer the moon, setting the tone for its role in a future global effort to colonise earth’s natural satellite. Nirad Mudur reports from Bangalore

It’s nine days to countdown. On October 22, the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is expected to blast off from Sriharikota and aim for the moon, making India join an elite club of a handful of nations to have tried sojourning at the earth’s natural satellite.

Just days ago, action stations at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) moved
Chandrayaan-1 from the Isro Space Applications Centre (Isac) in Bangalore to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota, about 80km north of Chennai. The spacecraft will orbit the moon for two years at an altitude of 100km before Isro’s scientists will intentionally crash it into the moon’s surface.

Some critics have suggested India is merely reinventing the wheel since the Americans and the Soviets have already done substantial work on the moon, not to speak of their numerous manned moon missions: between 1958 and 1976, the two superpowers carried out 69 unmanned and manned moon missions; the six successful US manned missions, starting with Apollo 11, between 1969 and 1972, and the three USSR missions between 1970 and 1976 were applauded the world over. Contrast this with Isro scientists saying that India is still not equipped to send its own ‘vyomanauts’ (‘vyom’ is ‘space’ in Sanskrit) to the moon.

India may be late, but it has an agenda. “Till now, moon missions have been in localised spaces,” says M Annadurai, mission director, Chandrayaan-1. “But we are planning to cover the entire moon, both sides of it — the one which faces the earth and the one which faces away.” (You may recall from your school science class that the moon rotates around its axis and revolves around the earth in roughly the same time: 28 days. Therefore, one side of the moon always faces the earth while the other always remains hidden.)

India not engaged in space race with China: ISRO chief

2008-10-12T18:09:00.001-07:00

As India prepares for its first unmanned mission to the Moon next week, ISRO chief Madhavan Nair has said that New Delhi is not engaged in a space race with Beijing, stating that the priorities of the two countries are different and there is no competition.

Chandrayaan-1, the country's first unmanned lunar venture, is slated for launch on October 22 and India has proposed Mars mission in 2013 and a human space flight by 2015.

China undertook a manned orbital flight in 2003 and launched a lunar satellite in October last year.

Ahead of Chandrayaan-1, India's most ambitious space venture to date, some analysts have said that it is an attempt to catch up with China and a space race involving the two Asian rivals.

However, ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair, who is also the Secretary in the Department of Space, disagrees with this view.

"Our priorities have been in providing the societal services, based on the space assets. There, we have been concentrating on earth observation and communication areas. Launch vehicles which are appropriate for these missions have been developed. That's way, we have developed technologies and systems required for national development", he told in an interview.

"Now, since we have some breathing time (we can also focus on areas beyond the above mentioned areas), we are now concentrating on planetary explorations and activities which are supposed to be taken up for the next decade. In that context, we are now taking up the proposals for the manned mission and so on," he said.

Chandrayaan to orbit moon for two years

2008-10-12T03:02:00.001-07:00

India's maiden lunar mission, the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft that launches on October 22, will orbit about 100 km from the lunar surface for two years, performing remote sensing of the dark side or hidden portion of the moon to unravel its mysteries, scientists working on the project said.

About 500 space scientists are working round-the-clock to launch India's maiden lunar mission next week.

The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft will be launched on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C11 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota, about 90 km from Chennai and off the Bay of Bengal.

"Preparations are in full swing to send the Chandrayaan spacecraft on October 22 between 6.15 am and 6.35 am though 6.21 am is the most optimal time for lift-off, as moon is inclined 28 degrees towards earth at the equator," SDSC director M C Dathan said at a preview of the historic launch.

With the northeast monsoon a week away from the proposed launch date and weather forecast till October 26 being ideal in terms of wind movement and clear skies, scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are striving to integrate the 1,380-kg spacecraft with the 316-tonne rocket, fitted with six strap-on motors for the D-Day.

The 45-metre tall, updated version PSLV is the trusted workhorse launch vehicle of the Indian space agency, with a record of 12 consecutive launches since 1994.

The four-stage rocket is equipped with solid and liquid propellants that will fire the strap-on boosters to catapult Chandrayaan into the lunar orbit 18 days after the lift-off, on November 8.

"Though the launch window will be kept open October 22-26, the actual launch operation will commence October 17 (T-5) with formal countdown 50 hours before the lift-off, on October 20 at 4.30 am and the final countdown seconds before the rocket is fired by computers into the sky," Dathan said.

As India's first spacecraft mission beyond earth orbit, Chandrayaan is aimed at expanding our knowledge about earth's only natural satellite - moon.

Orbiting about 100 km from the lunar surface, the spacecraft will perform remote sensing of moon for about two years using 11 scientific payloads, including five instruments designed and developed indigenously.

"Moon is the nearest celestial body to earth at a distance of 384,000 km. Formation and evolution of moon are central to understanding the solar system. Though there have been many manned and unmanned lunar explorations, Chandrayaan will be the first spacecraft to explore the dark side or hidden portion of moon and unravel the mystery behind," SDSC deputy director MSN Prasad said at a demo of the lunar mission.

The Benefits Of Chandrayaan-1 Mission

2008-10-11T09:40:00.001-07:00

ISRO expressed that Chandrayaan-1 is not an expensive mission and in fact this moon odyssey will help the nation to update the technological expertise in order to explore the outer space and finally setting up a base on the earth’s natural satellite.

S Satish, ISRO spokesperson, while contradicting the critics, who wanted an answer behind the need to spend money for a mission to explore the moon, when many other countries have already done it, said, “Moon mission cost is less than Rs 400 crore, which is just ten per cent of annual budget of ISRO spread over many years.”

The cost of Chandrayaan-1 which has been scheduled to be launched on 22nd October is nearly Rs 386 crore, which includes Rs 100 crore for the establishment of Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu. This will help to perform the task of getting the radio signals transmitted by future satellites, not just Chandrayaan-1. This mission is also India’s first unmanned lunar mission. The officials of ISRO feel that those who are against this mission are actually not fully aware with the facts related to the mission.

Satish clarified, “For example, previous moon missions have been undertaken by individual countries and it's no secret that expertise of that nature is not shared. So, India had to do it by itself lest it would lose out in the race for the Moon.”

This mission will also help ISRO to better its technological expertise to a great level.

An ISRO official said, “There is also the pride factor. With China forging ahead in the space field, India cannot lag behind and miss the bus. Moreover, some kind of colonization of Moon cannot be ruled out in the coming decades. We have to have our presence.”

ISRO plans manned space mission by 2015

2008-10-11T09:38:00.001-07:00

LESS THAN two weeks are left for the country’s first unmanned lunar mission ‘Chandrayaan’. Preparations are going on at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR), about 100 km from Chennai. If weather conditions remains favourable, India’s first spacecraft mission beyond earth’s orbit will be launched through indigenous workhorse rocket PSLV-C11.

Indian space scientists are impatiently counting days for the launch of the mission on October 22, slated at 6.20 am. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists are expecting that the lunar mission will bring forth many secrets of the moon. At the same time, people across the country are keenly waiting for the nation’s first major lunar mission.

Meanwhile, the Indian space authorities are planning a step ahead for the country’s maiden human space flight around 2015. The space scientists are eagerly awaiting a green signal from the government for their human space flight proposal.

According to top officials of ISRO, country’s human space flight is expected in 2015. SHAR director MP Dathan informed that a project report on the human space flight is ready and is awaiting final approval from the government. For the proposed human space flight (manned mission) programme, Dathan said a new launch pad will be developed at Sriharikota. He also mentioned that the indigenously built geosynchronous launch vehicle will be upgraded to undertake the manned mission.

Since the announcement of country’s first moon mission, Indian space scientists are facing criticism.

People are questioning the requirement for a lunar mission by India after a number of countries across the world have already undertaken similar missions in the past. But ISRO officials replies that the Chandrayaan mission will reveal many secrets, which the world is yet to know.

From the moon mission, the Indian scientists will try to find out several secrets; like the origin and evolution of the moon, detailed understanding of the mineralogy of the moon and abundance of Helium-3, which is said to be a relatively clean fuel for the future nuclear fusion reactor.

If Indian scientists succeed in getting the vital information from this lunar mission, it will certainly be a big achievement for the country. And it will also bring India on par with other developed countries. The lunar mission will also pave the way for the proposed human space flight and other space related projects. Let us keep our fingers crossed and wait to witness the proud moment in the country’s space history.

Tri-colour to fly on moon in November

2008-10-10T07:44:00.001-07:00

The Indian tri-colour will fly on the moon on November 8, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director K.Radhakrishnan said here on Thursday.

Chandrayaan-1, the culmination of experiments spanning 1963 to 2008, will lift off from Sriharikota on October 22, he said while releasing the logo of ‘Sastra Mela’, being organised by the Sastra Vedi.

Radhakrishnan said that Vikram Sarabhai’s vision was that the scientific advances we make should benefit the common man, even as we compete in the space-race. The dream has been realised today, he said. Also, through its efforts in science and technology, India had become one of the six leading nations, he said.

He released the logo by handing it over to State Human Rights Commission member S.Varghese. KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala delivered the key-note address. Vice-Chancellor of Sree Sankaracharya

Moon mission inexpensive; no insurance for Chandrayaan-1

2008-10-10T07:41:00.001-07:00

ISRO has said that the moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, would not be expensive at all, since it would allow India to upgrade its technological expertise for outer space exploration, and will also facilitate setting up a base on the Earth's Moon.

ISRO spokesperson S Satish has said that the moon mission's cost is lesser than Rs400 crore, totalling around ten per cent of ISRO's annual budget spread over many years. He was seeking to counter critics of the moon mission, who question the need for such the mission on account of the satellite having been explored by other countries already.

Satish said that the cost of India's first unmanned lunar mission, which is scheduled for 22 October, is around Rs386 crore. He said this includes Rs100 crore that would be spent on establishing the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu near Bangalore, which will receive radio signals transmitted by future satellites as well, and not just Chandrayaan-1.

He said that previous moon missions that were undertaken by other countries have had limited sharing of information, and that it is no secret that expertise of that nature are not shared. He said it therefore becomes imperative for India to undertake the lunar mission by itself, else it would stand to lose out in the race for the Moon.

The mission will also allow ISRO to upgrade its technological expertise in its journey towards the exploration of outer space and for future inter-planetary missions.

ISRO sources also said that Chandrayaan-1, being a scientific project, would not need any insurance cover. Consequently, ISRO has not applied for any insurance cover for the mission.

On 22 October, the one and a half tonne indigenous Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft will lift off for its mission to the moon, subject to the suitability of the weather. Chandrayaan-1 will take a little over a week to travel approximately 240,000 miles to reach its destined orbit 60 miles above the lunar surface. A crash landing of a lunar vehicle onto the moon's surface is also planned.

Insurance industry sources say that the cost of insuring space launches is almost prohibitively high on account of the high rate of failure. Moreover, they point out that most of the risk needs to be reinsured as Indian markets do not have the depth to cover launches by themselves. The premium varies between a quarter and a third of the sum assured as a result of the high risk. Self insurance is a better option for ISRO, says sources, as it has a good track record of launches.

The claims scenario in satellite launches also varies between zero and 100 per cent, since the launch can either be a success or a failure. Insurance for space launches has been gaining prominence on account of the use of satellite communication in most businesses. Chandrayaan-1 being a scientific mission, does not have business implications, and therefore does not need insurance as much as other, more commercial ventures do.

X-ray camera aboard Chandrayaan to eye the Moon

2008-10-09T05:47:00.001-07:00

A sophisticated X-ray camera made by scientists and engineers from the

UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is set to
launch into space on
October 22nd aboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft - India's first mission to the Moon.

The camera - C1XS - was designed and built at STFC Space Science and Technology Department in the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

It is an X-Ray Spectrometer that will measure X-rays to map the surface composition of the Moon which will help scientists to understand its origin and evolution, as well as quantifying the mineral resources that exist there.

C1XS was developed in conjunction with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

It employs new technology to make a compact, lightweight, sensitive instrument that can measure the abundances of chemical elements in the lunar surface, by detecting the X-rays they absorb and re-emit.

C1XS will work by looking at X-rays from the Sun, which have been absorbed by atoms in the lunar soil, then re-emitted in such a way as to reveal the chemistry of the surface.

The spectrometer is sensitive to magnesium, aluminium and silicon X-rays.

When the solar X-ray illumination is bright, for example during a solar flare, it may also be able to make measurements of other elements such as iron, titanium and calcium.

To make accurate measurements of the surface elements it is essential to measure the X-rays being produced by the Sun. C1XS has an additional detector system to measure these X-rays called the X-ray Solar Monitor (XSM), which is provided by the University of Helsinki Observatory, Finland.

Chandrayaan-1 is the first lunar mission from the Indian Space Research Organisation.

It is designed to orbit the Moon and carries radar and particle detectors as well as instruments that will make observations in the visible, near infrared and X-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

According to Dr Ian Crawford from Birkbeck College, who chairs the C1XS Science Team, "There is still a lot we don't know about the Moon. Accurate maps of the surface composition will help us unravel its internal structure and geological history."

"Among other things, this will help us better understand the origin of the Earth-Moon system. We will also be able to learn more about what happened on the Moon since it formed and how and when it cooled. By peering into its craters, we may even be able to see below its crust to the material underneath," he added.

Chandrayaan-II: India's maiden moon odyssey

2008-10-09T05:45:00.001-07:00

As space scientists prepare for India's maiden moon odyssey, the

government today approved another lunar mission which entails land
ing a rover on the
earth's natural satellite.

The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave the nod to Chandrayaan-II which is to be an Indo-Russian mission with a projected launch in 2011-12.

The Cabinet also approved upgrading the associated existing ground segment at a total cost of Rs 425 crore including a foreign exchange component of Rs 293.50 crore, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters here.

Scientists are planning to land a rover on the moon for carrying out chemical analysis of the lunar surface and explore other resources there.

"In situ chemical analysis and resource exploration is the main objective of Chandrayaan-II," a scientist associated with the mission said.

India had begun initial technical discussions on Chandrayaan-II which is expected to be a much shorter mission than Chandrayaan-I scheduled for launch later this year.

An agreement for Chandrayaan-II was signed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Roskosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow in November last year.

Mineral samples from the moon contained Helium 3, a variant of the gas used in refrigerators, and Chandrayaan-II will also look out for the gas which experts believe may offer a solution to energy shortages. The current Chinese moon mission is also exploring this prized source of energy.

Chandrayaan-II will benefit from the country's maiden moon mission which will survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography over a two-year period.

The survey of the lunar surface will help scientists identify the exact place for landing the rover and strategic locations to carry out experiments.

ISRO recently established a 32-meter diameter antenna at Byalalu near Bangalore for providing tracking and command support for Chandrayaan-I.

The antenna and associated systems are the first steps in building the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN), that is vital for facilitating a two-way radio communication link between the spacecraft and the earth.

The DSN-32 project will provide ISRO the capability to handle deep space missions besides allowing it to extend cross-support to similar missions by other nations because of its inter-operable features, world standards specifications and state-of-the-art capabilities.

Besides six Indian instruments, the mission is carrying payloads from the US, Germany, France, the UK and Sweden.

"All systems are progressing as per schedule for April 2008 launch," a scientist said.

The first phase will predominantly have remote sensing equipment like X-rays and gamma and laser imaging machines.

The remote sensing satellite will weigh 1,304 kgs (590 kg initial orbit mass and 504 kg dry mass) and carry high resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infra-red, soft and hard X-ray frequencies.

Moon mission is not expensive, says ISRO

2008-10-09T02:47:00.001-07:00

Dismissing suggestions that Chandrayaan-1 was an expensive mission, ISRO today said the moon odyssey will enable India to upgrade technological expertise for exploration of outer space and ultimately help in setting up a base on the earth's natural satellite.
"Moon mission cost is less than Rs 400 crore, which is just ten per cent of annual budget of ISRO spread over many years," ISRO spokesperson S Satish said, countering critics who questioned the need for such a venture when other countries have already explored the moon.

Cost of India's first unmanned lunar mission, slated for October 22, is Rs 386 crore, which includes Rs 100 crore for the establishment of Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu near here that will perform the task of receiving radio signals transmitted by future satellites, not just Chandrayaan-1.

"Those who argue that the moon mission is unnecessary do not know the full facts," say ISRO officials.

For example, previous moon missions have been undertaken by individual countries and it's no secret that expertise of that nature are not shared. So, India had to do it by itself lest it would lose out in the race for the Moon.

Besides, the moon mission would enable ISRO to upgrade its technological expertise further as it takes steps towards its quest for exploration of outer space and inter-planetary missions.

"There is also the pride factor. With China forging ahead in the space field, India cannot lag behind and miss the bus. Moreover, some kind of colonisation of Moon cannot be ruled out in the coming decades. We have to have our presence," an ISRO official told.

Chandrayaan-1: A quantum jump for ISRO

2008-10-09T02:46:00.001-07:00

It will be a quantum jump for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) when it launches unmanned Moon orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, India's first spacecraft mission beyond the earth orbit, on October 22.

The tentative launch is fixed for 0621 hrs when the improvised PSLV-C11 will soar into the sky from the Satish Dhavan Space Centre (SHAR), the island in Andhra Pradesh facing Bay of Bengal with the sprawling Pulikad Lake separating it from the land on the one side.

It will carry the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft with 11 payloads, including six from foreign countries.

The mood among the ISRO scientists is upbeat and nearly 1000-strong experts have worked day and night for the past one year.

All four stages of the 83 metre tall PSLV-C11 is fully integrated at the second launch pad with the spacecraft undergoing final tests a few kilometre away.

At Bylalu village, 40 km from Bangalore, ISRO has set up the Indian Deep Space Network, which includes two massive dish antennae, one with 32-metre diameter and other with 18 meter.

This will be the master control facility for Chandrayaan-1 which would be orbiting 100 km above the Moon after it is put into its slot on November 8.

''This mission is very different for ISRO which is making a big leap from the 40,000 km Earth orbit to nearly four lakh km Moon orbit.

''Our aim is to further expand our knowledge about Earth's only natural satellite -- the Moon,'' SHAR Director M Chandra Dathan told the visiting reporters from Bangalore here on Tuesday.

Scientific Payloads on Chandrayaan - 1

2008-10-09T02:44:00.001-07:00

Chandrayaan-1 is an Indian Mission to the Moon. The indigenously developed payload/ experiments are:


TMC
Terrain Mapping stereo Camera (TMC) in the panchromatic band, having 5 m spatial resolution and 20 km swath


HySI
Hyper Spectral Imaging camera (HYSI) operating in 400-950nm band with a spectral resolution of 15nm and spatial resolution of 80m with a swath of 20km.


LLRI
Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) with height resolution of about 10m


HEX
High Energy X-ray spectrometer (HEX) using Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride (CdZnTe) detector in the 30-250 keV energy region with spatial resolution of 40km


MIP
Moon Impact Probe (MIP) as piggyback on the main orbiter of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft which will impact on the surface of the moon

Apart from the above indigenous payloads/experiments, ISRO solicited proposals through an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) from International and Indian Scientific Community for participating in the mission by providing suitable scientific payloads complementing the Chandrayaan-1 objectives. Out of the proposals received, six experiments were finally selected for inclusion in Chandrayaan-1 mission. The AO payloads on-board Chandrayaan-1 are:


C1XS
Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS) through ESA -a collaboration between Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK and ISRO Satellite Centre, ISRO. Part of this payload is redesigned by ISRO to suit Chandrayaan-1 scientific objectives.


SIR-2
Near Infra Red spectrometer (SIR-2) from Max Plank Institute, Lindau, Germany through ESA


SARA
Sub KeV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA) through ESA, from Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Sweden and Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO. The Data Processing Unit of this payload/ experiment is designed and developed by ISRO, while Swedish Institute of Space Physics develops the payload.


RADOM
Radiation Dose Monitor Experiment (RADOM) from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences


MiniSAR
Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) from Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University and Naval Air Warfare Centre, USA through NASA


M3
Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) from Brown University and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA through NASA

Payloads : 1. Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC)

2008-10-09T01:00:00.001-07:00

TMC consists of three cameras for fore, nadir andaft viewing in order to obtain a stereoscopic viewof the lunar surface. It will image the lunar surfacein push broom mode in panchromatic spectralregion between 0.5 and 0.85 um. The fore andaft view angle is 25degree with respect to nadir. Itis expected to provide a spatial resolution of 5mand a swath coverage of 20 km from a nominalaltitude of 100 km. The illumination conditions onthe Moon vary significantly, therefore there is aprovision of adjustable gain and integration timesto improve the signal to noise. It requires solar illumination for optimumperformance and the observation period of twoyears therefore, is divided into several imaging seasons,depending on the solar aspect angle

Payloads : 2. Hyper-Spectral Imager (HySI)

2008-10-09T00:58:00.001-07:00

The Hyper-spectral imager is designed to mapthe major minerals present on the Moon (such asolivines, pyroxenes, feldspars, water-ice) with highspatial resolution and determine their composition.It employs a wedge filter sensitive in the range of0.4 to 0.92 um having 64 continuous bands with aspectral resolution of about 15 nm. It will have aspatial resolution of 80m with a swath of 20 km.The wedge filter is an interference filter varyingin thickness along one dimension. The signal isreceived by an area array detector such that differentpixels in a row of the 256 X 512 APS detectorwill receive irradiance from the same spectralregion but different spatial regions in the acrosstrack direction and different columns will receiveChandrayaan-1: Science goals 705irradiance from different spectral as well as spatialregions in the along track direction. The imagerworks in a push broom mode. This instrumentalso depends on the solar illumination and, thereforean imaging strategy depending on the solaraspect angle, has been developed.

Payloads : 3. Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI)

2008-10-09T00:55:00.001-07:00

A laser altimeter for topographic mapping has beenincluded in Chandrayaan-1 payloads. Togetherwith TMC, it should be able to provide a digitalelevation map of the Moon with 5m spatial resolution.The LLRI observations are not dependenton solar illumination and, therefore the shadowedareas of the Moon can also be mapped. The altimetryinformation will be used to correct the dataobtained by other instruments for viewing geometry.The LLRI employs a transmitting and a receivingoptics for the 1064 nm Nd-Yag laser beam tomeasure the roundtrip travel time which is convertedinto altitude information. The instrumenthas been described in detail elsewhere (Kamalakaret al 2005).

Payloads : 4. X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (LEX)

2008-10-09T00:54:00.001-07:00

An X-ray spectrometer, sensitive in the 1 to 10 keVregion will determine the major element compositionof the lunar surface material, by determiningthe flux of the characteristic Kƒ¿ X-rays of variouselements like Mg, Al, Si, Ca and Fe. Since fluorescentX-rays are excited by the solar flare X-rayflux, a solar X-ray monitor (SXM), consisting oftwo Si pin diodes, orthogonally placed, each coveringa field of view of 90. will monitor the Sun all thetime. The frequency and energy spectrum of thesolar flares depend on the phase of the solar cycle.Distribution of Mg, Al and Si and, possibly Ca, Tiand Fe during energetic X-ray flares, can be measuredusing this technique. A spectrometer similarto the one onboard Smart-1 mission (DCIXS, Foinget al 2004; Grande et al 2003) having an active areaof 50 cm2 should be quite suitable for this purpose.The spectrometer uses a swept charge device foroptimizing the signal to background ratio. Witha 5. collimator, it is expected to have a spatialresolution of 20 km. Since the operation of the Xrayspectrometer depends on solar illumination, animaging strategy has been developed, although itwill provide useful data only during flare time.

Payloads : 5. High Energy X-ray spectrometer (HEX)

2008-10-09T00:46:00.001-07:00

The high energy X-rays and gamma rays aboveabout 20 keV are produced as a consequence ofcosmic ray interactions in the lunar surface materialand inherent radioactivity (e.g., K, and Uand Th decay nuclides) present in the Moon.The nuclear interactions of primary and secondarycosmic rays with lunar material are confined tothe upper meter or two of the lunar surfaceand produce gamma rays by de-excitation, spallation,decay of induced radionuclides and by neutroncapture reactions, etc. Thus their flux hasthe signature of the lunar composition. An X-rayspectrometer, sensitive in the 20–250 keV regionhas therefore been included in the Chandrayaan-1payloads. In this region, there are a number ofgamma ray lines due to U and Th decay seriesnuclides like 210Pb (46.5 keV), 228Th (238.6 keV)and also due to neutron capture in rare earth elementslike Gd and Sm which have high neutroncapture cross section. However, because of the highCompton background, the signal to backgroundratio is poor. The background is also producedby the space craft and detector material whichmakes it difficult to determine the peak strengthswith good precision. However, the flux of scatteredgamma rays in this energy region is itself characteristicof the lunar terrain, being high in KREEP,gradually decreasing in basalt, highland and waterbodies and can possibly be used to map the variouslunar terrains.

The flux of gamma rays from radionuclides producedin decay of radon, e.g., 210Pb, depends, notonly on the in situ production in lunar surface butalso on degassing of radon from the lunar interior(Bhandari et al 2004a). Once in the lunaratmosphere, radon decays to 210Pb while it getsdeposited in lunar cold traps (e.g., poles or coolnight side). According to the model of Heymannand Yaniv (1971) radon is expected to pile upand show a peak at the morning and evening terminatorsand for this reason, radon (210Pb) canbe used as a tracer for transport of volatiles onthe lunar surface. Brodzinski and Langford (1975)have summarized the observations on 210Po andradon made at the Apollo landing sites. Consideringplausible diffusivity coefficients of radon in thelunar regolith, the signal due to 210Pb, depositedon the lunar surface as a thin paint, must bemeasurable.

There are many suitable solid state detectors(e.g., CdZnTe) and scintillators (e.g., BGO,CsI) available for the measurement of low energygamma rays. The measurement of excess 210Pbdue to diffusion of 222Rn from the lunar interior(Bhandari et al 2004a), over the amount producedin situ in the lunar surface due to U, requires highspatial resolution and therefore a 10? field of viewcollimator is proposed for a large area gamma raydetector, which will have a spatial resolution of20 km from a nominal altitude of 100 km.

Payloads : 6. Infrared spectrometer (SIR-2)

2008-10-09T00:43:00.001-07:00

The infrared spectrometer, proposed by U Mall and H U Keller of Max Planck Institute, Germany, is a grating spectrometer covering the wavelength range of 0.93 to 2.4 μm, having a spectral resolution of 6 nm and an angular resolution of 1.11 milirad. It is similar to the Smart-1 infrared spectrometer, described by Keller et al (2003). The spectrometer collects the reflected sunlight, which with the help of suitable optics is dispersed by grating and analysed by photosensitive pixels. Apart from lunar mineral mapping, which is accomplished by pointing the spectrometer facing nadir, it is capable of active tracking of particular features of interest for some duration.

Payloads : 7. Moon mineral mapper (M3)

2008-10-09T00:42:00.001-07:00

The Hyper-spectral Imager (HySI) and the SIR-2, described above, cover a spectral range from 400 nm to 2400 nm and provide lunar reflectance spectra which can be used for mineral mapping of the Moon. However, there is critical information beyond 2400 nm which may be useful in identifying hitherto unidentified minerals or potential polar resources, such as volatiles and organic compounds, if they are deposited on the lunar poles, and therefore a moon mineral mapper (M3), proposed by the American group of Carle Pieters, has been included in the Chandrayaan payloads. M3 operates between 700 and 3000 nm with 10 nm resolution. It has a swath of 20 km with a spatial resolution of 30m. The reflected solar light enters the M3 instrument, having 12◦ field of view, through an f/2.7 three mirror telescope. The focused light from the telescope passes through a slit into the high efficiency offner spectrometer. The spectrometer also uses an electron beam written convex dual blaze grating to achieve uniformity of design. At the focus of the spectrometer is located a 640 spatial by 231 spectral HgCdTe detector array sensitive from 700 to 3000 nm. A cryocooler is used for cooling the detector array. The long wavelength part (2600–3000 nm) is specially designed to investigate potential polar resources. It will have some overlap with HySI as well as SIR-2 and thus the three instruments together will make a comprehensive set of payloads for mineral mapping of the lunar surface.

Payloads : 8. Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR)

2008-10-09T00:40:00.001-07:00

The miniSAR, proposed by the Applied Physics Laboratory, USA, is a multifunction instrument working as a synthetic aperture radar imager, an altimeter, scatterometer or radiometer. The radar operates at 2.5GHz with a maximum peak RF power of 20W. The primary antenna transmits a right circular polarized (CP) signal, while receiving the dual polarized, i.e., right as well as left circularly polarized signal. The radar observes the lunar surface at 45◦ incidence angle, recording echoes in both the orthogonal directions and creates an image. It has a resolution of 100 meters per pixel but in spotlight or low altitude mode, it has a resolution of 10m/pixel. In the scatterometer/altimeter mode, the system will be nadir pointing and functions as a backscatter imaging radar with 300 m/pixel resolution. The radiometer, measuring the RF surface emissivity, is capable of measuring lunar surface temperatures in the range of 100–400K, with a precision of 1K, with a spatial resolution of 1 km. The meter scale surface roughness will be determined in the footprint. The circularly polarized ratio (CPR) will allow characterization of the physical properties of the lunar surface like dielectric constant and porosity.

Payloads : 9. Sub Atomic Reflection Analyser (SARA)

2008-10-09T00:38:00.001-07:00

The SARA will image the surface using low energy neutral atoms (up to iron) in the energy range of 10 eV to 2 keV. It consists of a low energy neutral atom sensor and a solar wind monitor. The neutral atoms, after sweeping away the ambient charged particles by an electrostatic deflector, are converted to positive ions on an ionisation surface and then enter the sensor. The particle velocity
is measured by time of flight measurement and the energy and mass are deduced by electrostatic analyzer. The mass resolution is such that H, O, Na–Mg, K–Ca and Fe group elements can be distinguished. Since the Moon does not have a magnetosphere or atmosphere, neutral atom density in the Moon’s environment is extremely small, produced mainly by sputtering due to solar wind ions. The contribution due to micrometeorite vaporization and solar photon simulated desorption is estimated to be small in this low energy region of interest. LENA imaging of the neutral atoms will thus provide maps of the sputtered elements which can be converted into surface composition maps, making suitable corrections for the sputtering yield and the solar wind flux, which depends on the cosine of the solar zenith angle. The Moon does not have a magnetosphere but small magnetic anomalies, strong enough to shield them to solar wind have been observed. In these regions, the neutral atom density will be small as sputtering due to solar wind would be absent. Thus LENA can detect magnetic anolmalies. For these measurements it is desirable to monitor the solar
wind flux, which will be done by the SARA ion mass analyzer. The instrument and its operation is described in detail in the paper by Bhardwaj (Bharadwaj A, Barabash S, Futaana Y, Kazama Y, Asamura K, Sridharan R, Holmstrom M, Wurtz P and Lundin R 2005 Low energy neutral atom imaging on the Moon with the SARA instrument aboard Chandrayaan-1 mission;)

Payloads : 10. Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM)

2008-10-09T00:34:00.001-07:00

An instrument for measuring the radiation dose (RADOM), proposed by T Dachev of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has been included in the Chandrayaan-1 payloads. RADOM consists of a semiconductor detector which measures the incident particle flux (ions, electrons and gamma rays) due to solar and galactic cosmic rays, accumulated absorbed dose rate and the deposited energy spectrum. The Si detector with an area of 2 cm2 has a charge sensitive preamplifier and a multichannel analyzer. Its threshold level is 8 keV. It will make the measurement in the lunar environment as a function of altitude as the spacecraft descends from the lunar capture orbit to its final altitude of 100 km.

Chandrayaan-1 Mission profile and objectives

2008-10-09T00:32:00.001-07:00

Chandrayaan-1 is a remote sensing mission proposed to be launched from the Satish Dhawan Launch Station at Sriharikota in 2007 by the Indian Space Research Organization using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. It will be injected into 240×36,000 km Elliptic Transfer Orbit (ETO) around the Earth and will be inserted in a circumlunar orbit (LOI) via Lunar Transfer Trajectory (LTT). The launch profile is discussed in detail in an accompanying paper (Adimurthy et al 2005). It will enter the lunar orbit at about 1000 km altitude and brought down to 100 km polar circular orbit in one or two stages. The lunar craft is designed to orbit the moon for a period of two years during which it will carry out chemical, mineralogical and topographic study of the lunar surface. There are several questions which are critical for understanding the formation and early evolutionary history of the Moon, and the Chandrayaan-1 mission objectives have been formulated keeping this in mind.

Mission objectives
The main objective of the mission is simultaneous chemical, mineral and topographic mapping with the specific goal of understanding the early evolution of the Moon. Chemical stratigraphy can provide better estimation of the average lunar composition and processes responsible for chemical differentiation of the Moon. Transport of volatiles, specifically water, and their deposition in the colder regions of the Moon and degassing of the Moon can be understood by using radon and its daughter nuclide 210Pb as tracers.

Chandrayaan-1: Scientific goals

2008-10-09T00:28:00.001-07:00

The primary objectives of the Chandrayaan-1 mission are simultaneous chemical, mineralogical
and topographic mapping of the lunar surface at high spatial resolution. These data should enable
us to understand compositional variation of major elements, which in turn, should lead to a better
understanding of the stratigraphic relationships between various litho units occurring on the lunar
surface. The major element distribution will be determined using an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer
(LEX), sensitive in the energy range of 1–10 keV where Mg, Al, Si, Ca and Fe give their Kα
lines. A solar X-ray monitor (SXM) to measure the energy spectrum of solar X-rays, which are
responsible for the fluorescent X-rays, is included. Radioactive elements like Th will be measured by
its 238.6 keV line using a low energy gamma-ray spectrometer (HEX) operating in the 20–250 keV
region. The mineral composition will be determined by a hyper-spectral imaging spectrometer
(HySI) sensitive in the 400–920 nm range. The wavelength range is further extended to 2600 nm
where some spectral features of the abundant lunar minerals and water occur, by using a nearinfrared
spectrometer (SIR-2), similar to that used on the Smart-1 mission, in collaboration with
ESA. A terrain mapping camera (TMC) in the panchromatic band will provide a three-dimensional
map of the lunar surface with a spatial resolution of about 5 m. Aided by a laser altimeter (LLRI)
to determine the altitude of the lunar craft, to correct for spatial coverage by various instruments,
TMC should enable us to prepare an elevation map with an accuracy of about 10m.
Four additional instruments under international collaboration are being considered. These are:
a Miniature Imaging Radar Instrument (mini-SAR), Sub Atomic Reflecting Analyser (SARA),
the Moon Mineral Mapper (M3) and a Radiation Monitor (RADOM). Apart from these scientific
payloads, certain technology experiments have been proposed, which may include an impactor
which will be released to land on the Moon during the mission.
Salient features of the mission are described here. The ensemble of instruments onboard
Chandrayaan-1 should enable us to accomplish the science goals defined for this mission.

Indians reach for the Sanskrit to give their own astronaut a name.

2008-10-09T00:23:00.001-07:00

Russia has its cosmonauts, America its astronauts and China, since 2003, its “taikonauts”. Could “gaganauts” be next?

India is searching for a Sanskrit-based word for a spaceman as its top scientists draw up plans for the country’s first manned mission into the cosmos.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), its equivalent of Nasa, said yesterday that it would be ready to send a man into orbit by 2014 and to the Moon by 2020 — four years earlier than China.

The organisation’s experts are due to discuss their options with other scientists at a meeting next week, according to S. Krishnamurthy, the director of information for Isro.

“After this meeting we’ll propose something to the Government,” he said. “It will take six to seven years before we can send anyone around the Earth’s orbit. After that, we’ll look into sending an Indian to the Moon.”

If the Government approves the plan India would stand to become the fourth country to launch a manned space mission after the Soviet Union, the United States and China.

It would be a milestone in India’s quest to become a leading world power and to counterbalance China’s economic and military influence in Asia.

China put its first man into space in 2003 — dubbed a taikonaut after taikong, the Mandarin word for space — and said this year that it aimed to complete a manned lunar landing by 2024.

By comparison, India’s space programme has progressed slowly since its inception in 1962. In July it suffered a big setback when the first commercial communications satellite to be built and launched in India burst into flames and crashed into the Bay of Bengal.

But Isro said that it was a one-off, citing 11 previous successful launches, and has set itself a series of ambitious targets for the next few years.

In December or January, its polar satellite launch vehicle is due to place in orbit a recoverable satellite as part of an experiment to perfect re-entry into the atmosphere. It is scheduled to launch India’s first unmanned mission, Chandrayaan-1, to the Moon, in the first half of 2008.

G. Madhavan Nair, the chairman of Isro, gave a slide presentation on plans for a manned space mission in front of Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, last month.

Unlike its Chinese counterpart, the Indian organisation has also promised to consult the public before going ahead with a project that would cost about 100 billion rupees (£1.2 billion).

Critics say that the Government should spend the money on alleviating the crushing poverty that afflicts more than a quarter of the population of 1.1 billion.

“The idea is to have a national debate on whether it’s a good idea,” said Mr Krishnamurthy.

“We’re not going to do something just because others have. But if we don’t do it now, after 30 years we might be left behind.”

To help to capture the public’s imagination, Isro is planning to consult Sanskrit scholars on a suitable name for the first Indian in space.

Antarikshyatri is the closest Sanskrit translation of astronaut, according to Chaudury Upender Rao, a Sanskrit expert at Jawaharlal Nehru University.But “antariksh-onaut” does not exactly roll off the tongue. So scholars say that “gaganaut” — from gagan, the Sanskrit word for sky — is the more likely choice.

Space Stats

2008-10-08T23:57:00.001-07:00

Race Heats Up: India, China, Europe push ahead as U.S. program slows to a crawl

2008-10-08T23:55:00.001-07:00

India recently launched a record 10 satellites into space on a single rocket. China conducted its first spacewalk last month. The European Space Agency is building a roving robot to land on Mars.

Space, like Earth below, is globalizing. And as it does, America's long-held superiority in exploring, exploiting and commercializing "the final frontier" is slipping away, many experts believe.

Although the United States remains dominant in most space-related fields -- and owns half the military satellites currently orbiting Earth -- experts say that the nation's superiority is diminishing, and many other nations are expanding their civilian and commercial space capabilities at a far faster pace.

"We spent many tens of billions of dollars during the Apollo era to purchase a commanding lead in space over all nations on Earth," said NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin, who said that his agency's budget is down by 20 percent in inflation-adjusted terms since 1992.

"We've been living off the fruit of that purchase for 40 years and have not ... chosen to invest at a level that would preserve that commanding lead."

In a recent in-depth study of international space competitiveness, Futron, a technology consulting firm in Bethesda, Md., found that the globalizing of space is unfolding more broadly and quickly than most Americans realize. "Systemic and competitive forces threaten U.S. space leadership," the company president, Joseph Fuller Jr., concluded.

Six separate nations and the European Space Agency are now capable of sending sophisticated satellites and spacecraft into orbit -- and more are on the way. New rockets, satellites and spacecraft are being planned to carry Chinese, Russian, European and Indian astronauts to the moon, to turn Israel into a center for launching minuscule "nanosatellites," and to allow Japan and the Europeans to explore the solar system and beyond with unmanned probes as sophisticated as NASA's.

While the United States has been making incremental progress in space, its global rivals have been taking the giant steps that once defined NASA:

□ Following China's lead, India has announced ambitious plans for a manned space program, and in November the European Union will probably approve a proposal to collaborate on a manned space effort with Russia. Russia will soon launch rockets from a base in South America under an agreement with Arianespace, a European company whose main launch facility is in Kourou, French Guiana.

□ Japan and China have satellites circling the moon, and India and Russia are working on lunar orbiters. NASA will launch a lunar reconnaissance mission this year, but many analysts believe that the Chinese will be the first to return astronauts to the moon.

□ The United States is largely out of the business of launching satellites for other nations, something the Russians, Indians, Chinese and Arianespace do regularly. Their clients include Nigeria, Singapore, Brazil, Israel and others. The 17-nation European Space Agency (ESA) and China are also cooperating on commercial ventures, including a rival to the U.S. space-based Global Positioning System.

□ South Korea, Taiwan and Brazil have plans to quickly develop their space programs and possibly become low-cost satellite launchers. South Korea and Brazil are developing homegrown rocket and satellite-making capacities.

This explosion in international space capabilities is recent, largely taking place since the turn of the century. While the origins of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Israeli and European space efforts go back further, their capability to pull off highly technical feats -- sending humans into orbit, circling Mars and the moon with unmanned spacecraft, landing on an asteroid and visiting a comet -- are all new developments.

In contrast to the Cold War space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union, the global competition today is being driven by national pride, newly earned wealth, a growing cadre of highly educated men and women, and the confidence that achievements in space will bring substantial soft power as well as military benefits. The planet-wide eagerness to join the space-faring club is palpable.

More than any other country besides the United States, experts say, China has decided that space exploration, and its commercial and military purposes, are as important as the seas once were to the British empire and air power was to the United States.

The Chinese space program started in the 1970s, but it was not until 2003 that astronaut Yang Liwei was blasted into space in a Shenzhou 5 spacecraft, making China one of only three nations to send men into space.

"The Chinese have a carefully thought-out human spaceflight program that will take them up to parity with the United States and Russia," Griffin said. "They're investing to make China a strategic world power second to none -- not so much to become a grand military power, but because deals and advantage flow to world leaders."

Meanwhile, other nations are pushing to increase their space budgets. Ministers from the European Space Agency nations will vote in November on a costly plan to begin a human space program. David Southwood, ESA's director for science, said that human space travel has broad support across the continent, and European astronauts who have flown to the space station on U.S. and Russian spacecraft are "extremely popular people" in their home nations. "It seems highly unlikely that Europe as a whole will opt out of putting humans into space," he said.

NASA and the U.S. space effort, meanwhile, have been in something of a slump.

The space shuttle is still the most sophisticated space vehicle ever built, and orbiting observatories such as the Hubble space telescope and its in-development successor, the James Webb space telescope, remain unmatched. But the combination of the 2003 Columbia disaster, the coming five-year "gap" when NASA will have no American spacecraft that can reach the space station, and the widely held belief that NASA lacks the financing to accomplish its goals, have together made the U.S. effort appear less than robust.

The tone of a recent workshop of space experts brought together by the respected National Research Council was described in a subsequent report as "surprisingly sober, with frequent expressions of discouragement, disappointment, and apprehension about the future of the U.S. civil space program."

Uncertainty over the fate of President Bush's ambitious "vision" of a manned moon-Mars mission, announced with great fanfare in 2004, is emblematic. The program was approved by Congress, but the administration's refusal to significantly increase spending to build a new generation of spacecraft has slowed development while leading to angry complaints that NASA is cannibalizing promising unmanned science missions to pay for the moon-Mars effort.

NASA's Griffin has told worried members of Congress that additional funds could move up the delivery date of the new-generation spacecraft from 2015 to 2013. The White House, however, has rejected Senate efforts to provide the money.

Although NASA's annual financing of $17 billion is large by civilian space-agency standards, it constitutes less than 0.6 percent of the federal budget and is believed to be less than half of the amount spent on national-security space programs. According to the Futron report, a considerably higher percentage of U.S. space financing goes into military hardware and systems than in any other nation.

At the same time, the enthusiasm for space ventures voiced by Europeans and Asians contrasts with the United States' lukewarm public response to the moon-Mars mission. In its assessment, Futron listed the most significant U.S. space weakness as "limited public interest in space activity."

The cost of manned space exploration, which requires expensive measures to sustain and protect astronauts in the cold emptiness of space, is a particular target.

"The manned space program served a purpose during the Apollo times, but it just doesn't anymore," said Robert Parks, a University of Maryland physics professor who writes about NASA and space. The reason: "Human beings haven't changed much in 160,000 years," he said, "but robots get better by the day."

Chandrayaan-I clears all tests for Moon odyssey

2008-10-08T23:52:00.001-07:00

As the moon mission began progressing from the realms of imagination to

reality, scientists put their heads together to design the pe
rfect spacecraft to carry
India's soaring aspirations. After slogging it out for months, straddling numerous calculations and combinations, what emerged from the drawing boards was a cuboid spacecraft. It had a single solar array to generate power.

As the spacecraft took shape, the scientists monitored its progress on computers. The equipment was housed in a closely-guarded room at the Isro satellite centre in Bangalore. During launch, the spacecraft will weigh 1,304 kg. Once it reaches the lunar orbit covering a distance of nearly 3,86,000km from the Earth, its weight will go down to 590kg as most of its propellants will be depleted during the five-and-a-half-day journey.

Of its total weight, the 11 scientific payloads it'll carry will weigh 80kg. Initially, when the design of the spacecraft was conceived, the weight of the payloads was kept at 35kg. One of the reasons why it shot up was the inclusion of the 29kg Moon Impact Probe, an Indian payload which was initiated at the instance of former President A P J Abdul Kalam. The probe will crashland on the lunar surface to identify future landing sites and explore the moon from a close range.

After freezing the design, scientists got down to preparing it and, by September, it was in flight mode. But takeoff was still a far cry as the spacecraft had to undergo several crucial tests to assess if it could weather the hostile space environment while encircling the moon for two years. Chandrayaan-I would take 117 minutes for every revolution at an altitude of 100km above the lunar surface. In the thermovac test, the spacecraft was lowered into a chamber with temperature extremes.

"This test imulates the actual difficult space environment," said an Isro official. Next came the vibration test in which the spacecraft was placed on a table and vibrated just like an actual launch. Third in line was the acoustic test where the roar of four jet planes was simulated simultaneously to check if the spacecraft could survive the literal blast of the launch. Isro officials recalled a case a few years ago when a few cows, which had accidentally strayed into the launch zone, had gone deaf because of the sound and fury of the takeoff.

The lunar vehicle scored full marks in all these tests and is now ready for launch in the early hours of October 22. After takeoff, once it detaches from the rocket and enters the geo-stationary transfer orbit, the spacecraft will operate on its own for a few days.

The spacecraft will generate power through what is known as a canted single-sided solar array. Which means Chandrayaan's energy will be gathered from the sun. The solar array with light-sensitive cells will generate 700 watts during peak period. During eclipse, it will be powered by lithium batteries.

Chandrayaan is equipped with things like thrusters, which will execute fuel burns to alter the trajectory whenever needed. It has an inertial measurement unit consisting of accelometers and gyroscopes to measure the attitude.

The design of the spacecraft is so advanced that flight controllers on Earth can instruct it to bring a back-up on line if there is a technical hitch. It has three solid state recorders on board to record data from various payloads.
While SSR-I will store science payload data, SSR-II will carry spacecraft altitude information, satellite housekeeping and other auxilliary data besides science payload data.

Isro fixes Oct 22 as launch date

India's maiden moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled to take off from Sriharikota at 6.20 am on October 22, Isro officials said on Monday.

"We are definitely targeting October 22. But if the weather becomes unfavourable, we will postpone the launch to October 23. The window of opportunity will remain open till October 26.We are keeping our fingers crossed and praying that the weather gods will be on our side on October 22," an official said.

Isro experts had recently told TOI that while rain wouldn't be an impediment to the launch, the mission cannot take off amid thunder, lightning and cyclonic conditions as these could damage the electronic circuit of the rocket and the spacecraft.

The moon-bound spacecraft with the 11 scientific instruments-six from abroad and five of India-was moved from the Isro Satellite Centre in Bangalore to the Sriharikota launch centre on October 3 where it is undergoing some more pre-launch tests at present. Once these are completed, the process of integrating the spacecraft with the fourth stage of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (pslv) will be initiated.

Officials said all the four stages of the rocket have been completed. A regular PSLV has six strap-on motors attached to the first stage of the rocket that use nine tonnes of solid propellants. But, in the case of the rocket which will carry Chandrayaan to the moon, the length of the strap-ons has been extended from 10 metres to 13.5 metres and each will use 12 tonnes of propellants. It is for this reason that this particular PSLV for the moon mission has been designated as PSLV-XL.

India to launch a manned mission to the moon

2008-10-08T23:50:00.001-07:00

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is reportedly planning for a manned mission to the moon in 2014. The proposal is in its initial stage and has not been approved yet. The proposed budget for this manned mission is estimated to be around Rs 1,000 crore.

The proposal already got cleared by the Space Commission and subsequently it was submitted to the government. A high-powered committee is perusing the proposal and the ISRO is awaiting the verdict which is likely to be given in next two months. But, the process of selecting the team alreday started. MC Dathan, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota Range informed, “Our chairman is very keen on the project getting approval. He has asked us to come out with complete proposals internally.”

Isro is planning to use Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for the manned mission as Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is not capable of launching a load of over 1,500 kg. The organisation is aiming to develop a full-fledged training facility for the crew in Bangalore even though the Indian Air Force is capable to do so. Besides, there are plans for building a launch pad with facilities for entry into the human lunar space capsule and an escape chute for the crew if anything goes awry. The other two existing launch pads are not deemed fit for this purpose.

Meanwhile, the unmanned mission, named Chandrayaan-I, is expected to be launched between 6.20 am and 6.35 am on October 22 from southern India. The 1.5-ton spacecraft which is devised to document the moon’s surface and chemical characteristics while creating a three-dimensional topographic map, will take approximately eight days to travel about 240,000 miles before reaching its final orbit 60 miles above the surface of the Moon.

ISRO aiming for manned mission to Moon in 2014

2008-10-08T12:26:00.001-07:00

Indian Space Research Organization has said that they are aiming to launch a manned mission to Moon in 2014.

They are already scheduled to launch the first unmanned mission to the moon on October 22.

ISRO is working on plans to launch the manned mission using a Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.

They are now working on creating a team for the manned mission to moon.

ISRO said in a statement: “Our chairman is very keen on the project getting approval. He has asked us to come out with complete proposals internally.”

MC Dathan, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota Range added: “The commission has cleared the proposal and it has been submitted to the government. A high-powered committee is studying the report. It is expected to be cleared in about two months.”

Besides the Indian Space Research Organisation is planning 2nd moon mission Chandrayaan-2 in 2011. Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) is joining with ISRO for development of Chandrayaan-2 Lander/Rover.

Chandrayaan-2 will consist of the spacecraft and a landing platform with the moon rover.

The rover would move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above.

The rover will weigh between 30 kg and 100 kg, depending on whether it is to do a semi-hard landing or soft landing. The rover will have an operating life-span of a month. It will run predominantly on solar power.

India Prepares For Unmanned Mission to Moon

2008-10-08T12:23:00.001-07:00

Indian space officials announced the country will launch its first unmanned mission to the moon on October 22 from southern India. The India Space Research Organization (ISRO) will use an Indian-built rocket to help carry the Chandrayaan-1 into orbit and towards the moon.

If weather conditions are poor, ISRO is prepared to delay the launch until October 26 or further.

India first hoped to launch Chandrayaan-1 in April, but mechanical problems with the $83 million mission forced the country to push back possible launch dates. The mission was first publicly announced in 2003, and was described by many as "overambitious" and a "waste of resources."

After making the 240,000-mile journey in eight days, the spacecraft is expected to document the moon's surface and chemical characteristics while creating a three-dimensional topographic map. Chandrayaan-1 will orbit around 60 miles above the moon's surface.

In addition to using high-resolution remote sensing tools to create the map, it will send a small impact probe into the moon's surface to test surface properties.

The ISRO and China are in an unofficial Asian version of the Cold War space race, with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) also involved, space observers have said in the past.

Last year, Japan launched the Kaguya lunar orbiter on September 14, then China launched the Chang'e I lunar satellite on October 24.

Along with the United States, Russia, China and Japan, the ISRO also wants to launch a manned mission to the moon, but has a lot of work to be done before being able to do so. ISRO plans to launch another moon mission in 2012, and will discuss manned mission details before the end of 2008.

India prepares to launch first unmanned moon mission

2008-10-08T12:21:00.001-07:00

India is to launch its first unmanned mission to the Moon this month as it struggles to catch up with China in a 21st-century Asian version of the space race between the United States and Soviet Union.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced yesterday that it would fire a locally made rocket bearing the lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 from a launchpad in southeastern India on October 22, weather permitting.

The launch could be delayed until October 26 if conditions are not right over the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, 63 miles (125km) from the city of Madras. It was planned originally for April, but was postponed repeatedly because of technical problems with the £47 million project, which involves several foreign countries, including the United States.

The 1.38tonne spacecraft will take approximately eight days to travel about 240,000 miles before reaching its final orbit 60 miles above the surface of the Moon, ISRO officials say.

It will then orbit for almost two years, using high-resolution remote sensing to compile a three-dimensional atlas of the Moon and analyse the composition of its surface, among other things.

It will also send a small impact probe to the surface.

Chandrayaan-1 will carry 11 payloads; five pieces of equipment from ISRO and six from foreign agencies, including Nasa and the European Space Agency. ISRO technicians will track the mission from a deep space network station in the village of Byalalu, about 25 miles from the southern city of Bangalore.

Critics say it is a waste of money for a country where 800 million out of a population of 1.1 billion live on less than $2 a day and where child malnutrition is on a par with that of sub-Saharan Africa. Advocates of India’s space programme, however, argue that ISRO makes money from commercial satellite launches and its scientific benefits have played a key role in the development of the country’s information technology industry.

They say that India is lagging far behind China, which completed its first manned space flight in 2003 and launched a lunar satellite in October last year. Last month a Chinese astronaut completed a 15-minute space walk for the first time.

ISRO, founded in 1969, is now aiming to put the first Indian into space by 2014 and to launch a manned lunar mission by 2020 – four years ahead of China’s target date. The Indian agency’s next step is to launch a second unmanned lunar mission – Chandrayaan-2 – in 2011, comprising an orbiting spacecraft, a lander and a Moon rover.

Gopal Raj, the author of a history of the Indian space programme, said ISRO’s timeframe was unrealistic, but hailed this month’s launch as a breakthrough, nonetheless. “For India, this is an important milestone,” he said. “If you want to do space exploration, the Moon is where you have to start.”

Chandrayaan-2 - joint expedition to the Moon with Russia approved

2008-10-08T12:18:00.001-07:00

Government of India approved the project “Chandrayaan-2”, which is the joint expedition to the Moon with Russia.

The project provides delivery of a landing module with mobile research laboratory to the Moon and performing contact scientific experiments, as well as collecting samples for further analysis. The launch of the expedition is scheduled for 2011-2012.

Collaboration provides launch of the space ship, consisting of two modules, one of which will stay at the orbit and the other will land to the Moon and release an up-to-date lunar rover. One of the main tasks of the mobile research laboratory is performing chemical analysis for receiving data on the Moon’s mineral resources.

Chandrayaan-I moved to Sriharikota

2008-10-08T12:15:00.001-07:00

The stage is set for Indias first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-I as the spacecraft has completed all environmental tests and shifted to Sriharikota for launch on-board PSLV-C11.

The PSLV-C11 was expected to be launched later this month.

The environmental tests included vibration and acoustic tests, ISRO officials told PTI.

The tests were carried out at the ISRO Satellite Centre at Bangalore, the officials told.

According to the sources, the launch vehicle has been integrated up to the fourth stage.

""The spacecraft after reaching Sriharikota will undergo mandatory tests after which it will be mated with PSLV-C11 vehicle"", they told.

Chandrayaan to be launched on October 22

2008-10-08T12:14:00.001-07:00

After repeated delays, India's first unmanned mission to the Moon-- Chandrayaan-1-- will be launched on October 22 from the spaceport at Sriharikota, Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) sources said today.
The sources said weather conditions permitting the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) carrying the Chandrayaan-1 satellite will blast off at 6.20 AM, the sources taold PTI. The Rs 386-crore lunar mission was cleared by the Government five years back but the historic launch faced several delays.

The space odyssey moved one more step closer to fruition when the satellite was transported from here to Sriharikota in a special vehicle last week and has since reached the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the coastal town, about 100 km from Chennai.

The spacecraft is expected to be mated with ISRO's work-horse rocket,PSLV-C11 later this week, the sources said.

The spacecraft would carry 11 payloads -- five from India and six from the US, Europe and Bulgaria.

It would orbit the Moon at an altitude of 100 km mapping the topography and the mineralogical content of the lunar soil.

Chandrayaan-1 would also carry a Moon Impact Probe payload for demonstrating the technology needed towards landing on the Moon's surface.

India believes the lunar mission is a step towards its quest for exploration of outer space and inter-planetary missions.

Source : PTI